STAR WARS: FATE OF THE JEDI: AWAKENING
by DhuryamDhuryam
Summary: Post Crucible. Part 3 of my FOTJ continuation. 56 ABY: A mysterious force conducts simultaneous attacks across the galaxy. Have the Celestials been roused? And if so, what are their intentions? Unexpected alliances shall be made. Meanwhile, Darth Plagueis continues the Grand Plan. And Seff Hellin will meet someone who will change his life. And what's going on with Dif Scaur?
1. Chapter 1

Dramatis Personae

Allana Solo; Jedi Knight (female human)

Ben Skywalker; Jedi Knight (male human)

Darth Blight; Sith Lord (male Barabel)

Darth Krayt; Sith Lord (male human)

Darth Nefaria/Vestara Khai; Sith Lord (female human)

Darth Plagueis; Sith Lord (male dark side manifestation)

Dif Scaur; Galactic Alliance Chief of State and Director of Intelligence (male human)

Han Solo; Captain, _Millennium Falcon_ (male human)

Hiroyuki Niathal; Galactic Alliance General (male Mon Calamari)

Leia Organa Solo; Jedi Knight (female human)

Luke Skywalker; Jedi Grand Master (male human)

Nek Bwua'tu; Galactic Alliance Admiral (male Bothan)

Seff Hellin; Jedi Knight (male human)

Tahiri Veila; Jedi Knight (female human)

Thrace Solusar; Jedi Knight (male Chiss)

Yantahar Bwua'tu; Jedi Knight (male Bothan)

**Author's note: This story takes place about a year after STAR WARS: FATE OF THE JEDI: EMPEROR OF DARKNESS**

56 ABY

Location Unknown

The gravitational disturbances detected by the advanced sensor systems were the only evidence that their ship was inside a cloud of dark matter.

"You'd expect dark matter to be dark wouldn't you?"

"They only call it that because they don't know what to call it."

"How 'bout 'Mystery Matter'?" suggested the first.

"Oy, we've got something," interrupted a third. "But it's not dark matter. It's something solid."

"I think we just found the location of Senator Harken's tax records!" exclaimed the first.

"Shut… Whoa. We just got a massive energy spike."

Unrecognizable, clearly malicious code began blurring by on one of the terminals. "We're being sliced!"

A number of stars seemed to suddenly vanish. Something had moved to blot out their light. A beam of silvery light slammed into the shuttle's deflector shield. After another hit the ship detonated.

#

Kuat Cyber Defense

The firewall had been breached. Armedius Krey'tnarov's fingers flew over the keyboard as he sought to repair his assigned section of the firewall. No sooner had he fixed it than two new breaches appeared.

The Bothan slicer typed in a command to view the offending code. Unrecognizable symbols flashed by so fast he could scarcely recognize that he could not recognize them. The slicer droids couldn't even keep up, let alone his fingers. The poor droids couldn't even decipher the Void-derived thing.

Armedius reflected, as the whole system began to crash, that it was fortunate that the mysterious code had been recorded. So at least people could try to decipher it, and at a reasonable speed.

#

Chiss Ascendency

"Commander Sgovt, you need to see this."

Kres'gov'tin walked over to the officer's station. He pointed at the visual display. "There's something blotting out the stars. But it is not appearing on our sensors."

"Stealth technology," Commander Sgovt said with a frown. A shiver went down her spine as she looked at the ship. It appeared to be slightly smaller than the standard Star Destroyer. And she spotted another such ship. "Go to high alert," she instructed her fleet, via her comlink. "We have an unknown number of potentially hostile, stealth equipped capital vessels."

The _Dagger of Csilla_ shuddered as its deflector shield was hit by a silvery beam of energy. Commander Sgovt kept her eyes on the visual display. The light from the explosion partially outlined one of the enemy vessels. The hull was a matte black in color, and was very sleek.

"Shields down to eighty nine percent," called one of the officers.

The commander activated her comlink again. "Stealth ships are hostile."

Two of these enemy vessels were illuminated, and revealed to be seed shaped, as the _Dagger of Csilla_ returned fire.

The _Dagger of Csilla's_ bridge shook as the Chiss Star Destroyer took on more fire. A brief alarm tone sounded to indicate that the vessel had sustained serious damage. "Shields down to fifty three percent," reported the same officer who'd reported the earlier drop in shield strength. "I do not believe we are going to survive this.

The _Dagger of Csilla_ leapt forward, slamming into one of its attackers. The two vessels joined in an enormous fireball.

#

_Errant Venture_

Things had been awfully quite of late. Too quite, as far as Luke Skywalker was concerned. Like the water level dropping drastically before a monsoon.

The fleet Moff Gatterweld had brought to the Hapes Consortium had quickly ended the conflict with the Hapan Freedom Federation. But, Luke was slightly alarmed at how expediently this had been accomplished. He and some of the other Jedi had voiced concerns that Darth Plagueis was involved. And if that was the case, then the end of the Hapan civil war was actually a bad thing.

And the recent actions of the Galactic Alliance's new Chief of State were no comfort, either. Only months ago, Dif Scaur had approved trials for an experimental drug called Midichlore. The substance caused increased production of midichlorians which, in large enough numbers, allowed one to tap into the Force. It would only be given to military personnel. Scaur felt that in such an environment the use of the Force could be 'properly governed'.

Luke was deeply concerned over the repercussions of this. Dif Scaur would be giving the Force to people who weren't meant to have it. How would these people handle suddenly being able to use the Force? And what if they could only use the dark side? The Chief of State could wind up creating an army of Sith.

And despite continual denial, Luke knew that the Chief of State and Director of Intelligence was running surveillance on the Jedi. Monitoring their communications and their whereabouts, to the best of his ability. And this, of course, this would only make it harder for the Jedi to defend the Galactic Alliance when things got ugly again.

Luke brought his attention back to the sparring match. Very little was happening. Thrace made another attempt at a feint, only for it to be anticipated by Allana, again. Allana shifted position slightly, and Thrace adjusted his position accordingly.

Luke felt a touch of annoyance from Allana. The two Jedi Knights continued to anticipate each other's actions, so it was highly unlikely that the battle would be going anywhere. Luke shook his head in amusement. Through the Force the Jedi Master could tell that his son Ben and sister Leia found the spectacle just as amusing.

"I must be missing something, here," commented Han. "If this is supposed to be funny, then I really don't understand Jedi humor."

"Because of the strength of their Force bond, it's almost as if they share one mind," Leia explained.

"It would be like trying to play dejarik against yourself," Ben said. "You know exactly what your opponent is planning."

"So are they trying to… shield their minds from each other?" Han asked.

"Exactly," Luke said.

Thrace suddenly deactivated his lightsaber as he swung it toward Allana's neck. The Chiss Jedi shook his head when he saw that she had her lightsaber's emitter nozzle pointed toward his heart.

"They gave up trying to block their thoughts from each other and just went for it," Ben said.

"So if this had been a real fight, they would have just killed each other," Han said.

Luke nodded absently. The other four Jedi seemed concerned as well. His comlink suddenly beeped and he put it up to his ear. "Ops room, now," the Jedi Master said as he replaced his comlink. "All of us."

#

A life-sized holographic likeness of Admiral Nek Bwua'tu sat at the head of the table. To his right sat a grim faced Corran Horn and his wife Mirrax, captain of the _Errant Venture_. Han and the Jedi took seats to their right.

To Admiral Bwua'tu's left were holograms of Chief of State and Director of Intelligence Dif Scaur and Imperial Head of State Zedekiah Gatterweld.

"Commander Kres'gov'tin was killed in the attack," the admiral was saying. "According to the transmission, the attacking fleet was using stealth tech."

"These were capital ships," Chief of State Scaur clarified. He suddenly turned to someone out of view. Scaur muttered something and turned back to the others. "Duro was just attacked. Admiral Darklighter's fleet just entered the system. We're assuming the enemy ships use technology similar to that of the StealthX. Advances in sensor technology have allowed us to better detect them." Dif Scaur took on a somewhat reluctant tone for that last sentence.


	2. Chapter 2

Duro

Staring through one of the forward viewports of the Mon Calamari cruiser _Shield of Dac_ General Hiroyuki Niathal surveyed the battle, massacre really, in utter dismay. Dozens of Galactic Alliance ships were already floating dead in space. Some of these vessels, he could see, were sinking into low, decaying orbits around the planet. As with the attack on Coruscant by the droid ships, the debris would crash to the planet, ending countless lives. But, at least there there'd been advance warning this time.

The enemy ships were about two thirds the size of the standard Star Destroyer. They were seed shaped, with the front end tapering to a point. A very sleek version of a Star Destroyer. Beams of silvery-white energy lanced from the ships, slamming into the deflector shields of the Star Destroyers. The Alliance vessels' shields rippled as though they'd been hit dozens of times. And there were smaller shadows flitting about, ramming Alliance fighters and then flying away.

Yes, part of the Mon Calamari general was relieved when Admiral Darklighter arrived with the Fourth Fleet. _But what can they do other than provide these shadow ships with more targets?_ The admiral might at least be able to learn something about the way they fight.

#

Jedi Master Kyp Durron had never seen fighters like these before. A matte black color, reminiscent of the Stealth-X. At first glance the fighters appeared triangular, but illumination from weapons fire revealed them to be vee shaped. And the front edges of the craft appeared razor sharp.

Kyp reached out toward the enemy force. The stagnant stench of something that could scarcely be called life. Engulfed and permeated by an ugly, hateful haze. Suspended, barely above death.

The vee shaped fighter ahead of him suddenly rose up on its right or left, depending on one's perspective, avoiding his lasers yet again. As with those dreadful Shadow TIEs the thing seemed able to predict his actions. The same was true of the mysterious fleet as a whole. Not that they actually needed that capability.

#

Admiral Darklighter's fleet provided cover fire for fleeing civilian ships and damaged Star Destroyers as best they could. Upon reaching his fleet the damaged Star Destroyers turned to present their flank weapons, whichever side was more functional, to the enemy. Gavin hoped to destroy at least one of these enemy ships, for the sake of morale.

Gavin despised fighting this way. The primary goal was not to destroy enemy ships, though it was still desirable, but rather to preserve as many ally ships as possible. One couldn't win a chess game without taking any pieces.

One of the seed shaped capital ships pounded a pair of Star Destroyers. The smaller ship should have been on its way to the scrap heap by now, but its deflector shield hardly seemed taxed. The crew knew exactly where the Galactic Alliance vessels' gunners would aim. A group of razor edged fighters crept under the weakened deflector shield of one of the Star Destroyers. They took out some of the deflector shield generators, and then veered away to allow their larger comrade to finish it off. That larger vessel moved out of the way before it could be rammed by the doomed Star Destroyer.

#

The wings of Kyp's quarry suddenly bent forward and the ship was now coming right at him. He twisted his X-wing out of the way, mostly-he felt an impact as the deflector shield was temporarily breached.

Kyp continued on his current trajectory and, as he had hoped, the razor like fighter instantly reversed course to chase after him. The Jedi Master reached out into the Force, grabbed onto a piece of debris, and hurled it behind his X-wing. It slammed into his pursuer; Kyp could feel in the Force that the fighter had been damaged. He looped around and fired a torpedo at the middle of the fighter. It detonated in a spray of shrapnel.

He put on a burst of speed and began firing at one of them from above/below as these fighters apparently lacked a definite top and bottom.

#

Some distance from Borleias

Admiral Bwua'tu's fleet dropped out of hyperspace to join with the Chiss fleet, led by Chaff'orm'bintrano or Formbi. It was a massive combined fleet; as of yet no one knew how else to fight this new threat. Bwua'tu was hopeful that weaknesses would be discovered.

No enemy fleet movements had been detected as of yet, not surprising given their stealth nature, but Borleias had been deemed a logical next step.

The report from Duro was not good. The enemy, which had lost just one capital ship, now held Duro, and only about half the defending vessels had managed to escape. Darklighter and Niathal were bringing their combined fleet to Kuat, in anticipation of an attack on the new capital of the Galactic Alliance. The enemy's capital ships, while smaller than Star Destroyers, were considerably more powerful. Their fighters could ram other fighters without sustaining any significant damage, and could reverse course almost instantaneously.

#

Fighters poured out of their carriers as the Alliance/Chiss fleet waited for what had been designated as the Dark Fleet. Allana led Thrace and Seff, on her left and right flanks respectively, out of the _Akbar_. "This oughta be fun," Seff remarked sarcastically over the comm. A few moments later flashes of light began resolving themselves into shadows.

Thrace reached out to the new arrivals in the Force. At first he felt nothing. He frowned; it had to be something. He recalled reading of an experiment involving a vacuum chamber. There shouldn't have been anything inside this chamber, yet when a detector was placed nearby something was detected.

So Thrace probed that vast nothingness. And felt something… pure hatred. Yet strangely, there was no emotion attached to it. It was purely intellectual. There were many presences, all of them connected. A hive mind. Whatever one knew they all knew.

Thrace focused in on one of the presences. What he felt reminded him of the Silentium that had been in that room in the coreship with Allana. But while that presence was not at all vibrant, it didn't have that distinct sense of deadness, either. And it hadn't been evil, as these presences were. These beings had not been deceived and taken advantage of, as the Silentium had been, by Abeloth.

#

Admiral Bwua'tu shook his head at the enemy force. Had he not known how powerful those ships were he'd have laughed, as this fleet was about half the size of the Galactic Alliance/Chiss fleet. But now he suppressed a shudder.

Lines of deadly silver white light came to life just above and below the middle of the seed shaped vessels. The ships looked quite a bit like paramecia with the hair like cilia with which they moved. The Alliance/Chiss fleet let loose with red, green, and blue fire. The primary colors of light, which together made white. The admiral was relieved to see the deflector shields of the enemy rippling.

#

Coming out around the sheets of white fire were what had been designated as Razors. They twisted through space, knowing where the Alliance pilots would fire. Both sides began taking losses. A pair of Razors took up position ahead of Allana, Thrace, and Seff. Thrace focused his attention on the vessels. The energy flow near the middle of the left most one changed. Allana and Thrace's mentor Seff felt what he felt through the Force meld and the three fired at the center of the ship. It exploded in a shower of shrapnel.

Seff juked his X-wing as the second Razor came at him. It slammed into his lower left s-foil, ripping off the whole wing and putting him into a spin. He quickly corrected it, but was now left with only three engines. The three Jedi dispersed as that second Razor came along for another pass. This one would not fall for that same trick, at least not as easily.

But the enemy fighter suddenly detonated, and the _Millennium Falcon_ passed by, twisting in space to avoid another of the Razors. Seff sent Leia a sense of gratitude.

#

Jaina felt a pilot in her squadron die as a Razor sliced through the younger woman's X-wing. Bhixen fired a torpedo at that X-wing, destroying the enemy fighter along with it. Jaina felt a sense of guilt from the Jedi Knight, but also an understanding that his comrade had already been dead.

Tahiri's shield sparked a tiny bit as it was hit by a piece of the Razor the _Sarlagesus_ had just vaped. Kam Solusar was piloting the custom freighter, while his wife Tionne was manning the upper/starboard laser turret; the ship's droid brain Evelyn had taken the lower/port turret. Tahiri found it strange for Thrace's adoptive parents to be in combat, as their usual role involved teaching their students.

Tahiri and Yantahar managed to take out a second Razor. But not before it scraped Yantahar's shield in a failed attempt to cut through the cockpit, and the Bothan Jedi within. The two X-wings and the freighter, which had no trouble keeping up, then joined up with a squadron of A-wings to go after a whole squadron of Razors.

#

The _Akbar _quaked as another silvery beam of energy slammed into her deflector shield. "Shield strength down to seventy three percent," Zuul Zuzu informed Admiral Bwua'tu.

The battle was going a tiny bit better than Admiral Bwua'tu had expected. The enemy had already lost three carriers, and a fourth was on its way. Three Alliance ships had been lost along with four Chiss vessels. Considering that the enemy ships were around twice as powerful this fight was actually turning out to be a draw. Which would allow Borleias to be almost completely evacuated; unfortunately there were those unfortunate few, or many, who would be stuck on the world.

The seed shaped enemy ships suddenly began moving backwards, like the squid-like cuttlefish. That combined with a lack of ion emissions made it clear that the enemy ships' propulsion was based on gravity disturbances, as with the vessels that had been used by the Yuuzhan Vong. But those ships, as far as Bwua'tu knew, could not move backwards. Nor had they been able to enter hyperspace backwards, he reflected as the enemy vessels began disappearing in flashes of silver white light.

The enemy would regroup and come back with an even larger fleet, most likely. Allana had commed the admiral with the news that the enemy fleet was connected in a type of hive mind, so what that enemy fleet had all of the other such fleets and their ships had also learned. Bwua'tu knew the hyperlane ahead would therefore be quite brutal.


	3. Chapter 3

Kuat

Minutes after the battle at Borleias had concluded, Chief of State Scaur had contacted Admiral Bwua'tu and instructed him to bring his fleet to Kuat. Bwua'tu and the Fifth Fleet would be joining the defending forces there rather than Admiral Darklighter and General Niathal's combined fleet. It had been deemed too risky for the combined fleet to attempt to turn around once they reached Kuat as it wasn't known how long it would take their pursuers, which had attacked Duro, to arrive.

Darklighter and Niathal's fleet had just exited hyperspace, and was forming up with another group of vessels bound for Borleias. As Bwua'tu's fleet had hours earlier, this fleet would also be joining up with a fleet led by Aristocra Formbi.

Admiral Bwua'tu looked out the forward viewport. He did not see how the forces remaining at Kuat would be enough to defend the world. But when the admiral had spoken with Dif Scaur, the Chief of State had adjusted something that was out of view. This suggested that Scaur wasn't telling Bwua'tu everything. The Director of Intelligence would certainly be aware that the Dark Fleet could be monitoring their communications. So Admiral Bwua'tu expected some sort of reinforcements to arrive; he just hoped help would come before it was too late.

Seed shaped vessels began to materialize out of the endless night that was space. The Dark Fleet surged forward and reached firing range over a minute before the Galactic Alliance fleet. Swarms of dagger like fighters boiled out of the Dark Ships and met up with the ranks of Alliance fighters.

Initially the pilots either twisted out of the way or had their ships sliced open and died. Some pilots managed to fire upon their dead, or soon-to-be-dead, comrades' fighters as they were rammed. This took out some of the Razors.

Jaina and her husband Jag had joined up with a pair of A-wings. One of the A-wings got behind one of the Razors and as it bent its wings forward so that it could reverse course, Jaina fired her lasers and a pair of torpedoes at the top/bottom of the enemy fighter. A pass by the A-wing it had failed to ram finished it off. Jag and the other A-wing pilot executed a similar maneuver.

A few kilometers away her mother Leia grabbed onto a piece of space debris and hurled it into a Razor that she had allowed to tail her. She was flying the _Falcon_ almost like it was an X-wing, twisting and juking at the last instant to avoid getting rammed. The freighter wasn't quite as fast as an X-wing, but it had more fire power.

#

Admiral Bwua'tu watched a number of Star Destroyers mercilessly pound one of the Dark Ships, which was headed toward the surface of Kuat. Considerably smaller ships, though considerably larger than the Razors, swarmed out of their apparently doomed carrier. These vessels were roughly triangular at the top. They were elongated and tapered to a point at the back. The ships tapered to a sort of long 'fin' at the bottom. They somewhat resembled upside-down, wingless Republic gunships… Troop transports!

#

Surface of Kuat

Jedi Master Kyp Durron and five other Jedi had managed to break away from the space engagement and follow the troop transports, which were escorted by a swarm of Razors, down to the surface of Kuat. A group of Galactic Alliance pilots joined the Jedi. The pilots were forced to scatter as the Razors' wings bent forward, and they shot 'backward'. Three Alliance X-wings were torn apart as Razors ripped through them.

One of the enemy transports exploded in a shower of shrapnel as an Alliance pilot flew straight into it. Another of the transports and some of the Razors were also reduced to scrap metal as Kuat's ground based defenses opened up.

As Kyp led the five other Jedi and the dwindling number of Alliance pilots toward the ground, he spotted several droid gunships, and groups of Alliance soldiers and YVH droids. Galactic Alliance Intelligence, led by Dif Scaur, had somehow located a sizable stock pile of the gunships shortly after the droid crisis two years prior. The droids had proven quite effective for law enforcement, and hopefully the coming ground battle. Kyp's astromech droid suddenly beeped at him. He glanced down at one of the screens, and grimaced.

"They're headed for a fighter plant," said Kyp Durron's voice into Allana's earpiece. She saw it before her astromech sent a tiny map of its location to her heads up display; the top of the building was studded with laser batteries. And some of the fighters churned out by the factory, mostly X-wings, had come to the defense of the plant. It seemed unlikely that the enemy would be able to just blast the whole building apart. _And they want to learn about us_, Allana thought.

Several dark, humanoid droids, perhaps the height of a full grown Wookiee, were running toward the western wall of the fighter factory. Allana could feel those same, almost non-existent life Forces she'd felt before. A few feet away a troop transport was lifting into the air.

A great cloud of dirt went up into the air as a missile landed in the midst of these Dark Ones. A droid gunship hovered a few meters away. It started to turn to engage the rising troop transport, but a silver-white burst of energy quickly reduced it to a burning hulk. Allana _grabbed_ it and hurled it at the transport. The enemy ship easily dodged the debris, but then her husband Thrace, who'd been flying beside her, managed to vape it with his lasers and a proton torpedo.

Allana and Thrace turned their X-wing and X-ceptor, respectively, toward the nearest wall of the fighter factory. A hole had been blasted into the wall, and the last of the surviving Dark Ones was scrambling into a hole they'd made. The two Force-bonded Jedi shared a sense of frustration; they'd have to go in after the bedeviled… whatever-the-heck-they-were.

The two Jedi brought their fighters to hover a couple meters or so above the ground and jumped. A mixed group of Galactic Alliance soldiers and YVH droids met up with them. The combined groups strategized briefly, and then cautiously made their way toward the hole.

The YVH droids retained the characteristic skull-like face of their predecessors, but were more heavily armed. They carried more grenades and both their forearms could turn into plasma cannons, pretty much like Thrace's prosthetic arm. Though his wasn't legal in the Alliance, but since he wasn't technically a citizen… Thrace and the YVH droids configured their plasma cannons and began firing through the wall, to either side of the hole. The Chiss Jedi could feel the Dark Ones moving away, which meant those who entered the factory would not be immediately cut down upon entry.

Six Dark Ones stood waiting in a rough semi-circle, and then charged at the group. It did not seem like a good strategy, which worried Thrace considerably. The mechanized warriors jumped and twisted out of the way, with surprising nimbleness, as the group fired on them. As though they were Jedi.

Thrace studied one of them for a split second. It looked like a black, nightmare version of a YVH droid. It must have been about nine feet tall. On the 'face' were two red visors, one right above the other. They were a sort of squished v-shape, like a flying bird seen from a great distance. Each of these visors had seven points of light by which they seemed to be illuminated. If they were, in fact, individual eyes, then this thing had fourteen of them!

The Dark One's hands had six long, slender fingers. It reminded Thrace of those needle leg spiders one would sometimes find in a corner in one's flat, hanging upside-down from a small web. And the foot-this one was missing the lower part of its right leg-ended in three vicious looking claws, like those of some predatory bird.

One of the Dark Ones leapt into the air and grabbed the head of an unfortunate YVH droid with a clawed foot, ripping it off. As it landed its left forearm seemed to melt into a sharp point. The being impaled another droid in the chest. A burst of silver-white energy came out of the droid's back and blasted a hole in another droid's chest.

The one legged Dark One jumped into the midst of soldiers. Allana Forced hurled the monstrosity away from the soldiers. The Dark One used the energy for a back flip, and landed on its foot. Allana ran toward it, firing with a heavy blaster and batting aside energy launched from her enemy's blades. The Alliance soldiers behind Allana provided her with much needed cover fire.

Thrace came up behind that Dark One, barely ducking a slash from the being. For a moment or two it managed to hold its own against him and Allana, until the Chiss Jedi slagged the head with his plasma cannon. Thrace Force threw another mechanical warrior away from the group of Alliance soldiers; only five of the ten were still alive. And the last YVH droid had just fallen.

Two more Dark Ones came at Thrace and Allana. Allana managed, with some difficulty to block the two blades of her opponent.

Thrace activated his saberstaff's second blade. The Dark One seemed to anticipate this-by analyzing his movements, no doubt-and twisted out of the way before the Chiss Jedi could behead it. The mechanized warrior continued to evade Thrace's blows and, while keeping him busy with one forearm, swung the other toward his neck. Thrace reconfigured his left forearm into a blade to block the attack, and used the Force to prevent his opponent from pushing his arm down. His opponent hammered its blade down on the Chiss Jedi's beskar blade. Thrace felt a vibration and, out of the corner of his eye, saw the blade snap off. "Bugger," he muttered as he managed to Force push the monster away.

Taking advantage of the short reprieve Thrace jumped into the air, twisted around and fired off a plasma ball at Allana's opponent. It jumped out of the way only to be fired upon by three angry Alliance soldiers. This gave Allana the time she needed to behead her foe and Force toss the being at Thrace's opponent. Thrace's opponent leapt up into the air only to be vaped by one of many droid gunships.

#

Kyp Durron and Yantahar Bwua'tu had joined up with a particularly large group of Alliance ground forces tasked with defending the fighter factory's eastern wall. Nineteen Dark Ones were running toward them.

Kyp reached out to their enemy in the Force. Some of these beings seemed more alive-less dead, rather-than others. He relayed this to Yantahar through their Force meld.

Kyp rolled under one of the Dark Ones, slashing at its leg. He blocked a backward slash from the mechanical warrior, and used the force of the impact to help him roll away. The Jedi Master leapt into the air as his opponent turned around, deactivated his weapon, and then reactivated it to let the blade pierce the head.

The sky thundered with booms and detonations as Alliance fighters exchanged fire with Razors and lozenge-like troop transports. Yantahar's danger sense, which he sometimes jokingly compared to a hot flash, leapt backward, barely avoiding the falling debris of a destroyed ship. The Bothan Jedi _grabbed _onto one of the pieces and _slammed_ it into his opponent.

A few meters away another transport passed over a droid gunship. Mechanical soldiers jumped out of the rear hatch which had irised open. One of these landed on the droid gunship. Both its forearms, in sword mode, sank in behind the droid's head. There was a puff of smoke and the crackle of electricity. Yantahar groaned as the droid gunship crashed to the ground.

The gunship's attacker jumped into the air, but Kyp used the Force to flip the disabled droid onto its back as it fell, pinning down the Dark One. "We need the head," he told Yantahar. The Jedi Knight, deftly deflecting and dodging the Dark One's blasts, made his way to the being. The monster's neck was damaged, and Yantahar easily beheaded it. The Bothan Jedi brushed the head in the Force, the brain was organic. Using the Force he hid the head in some nearby bushes.

#

"Kyp wants one of their heads," Tahiri told Seff as she used the Force to shut off her comlink.

Seff fought with his green bladed lightsaber and one of the two red bladed ones-Vestara likely still had the other one-which had belonged to Thrace's father Thorden. The borrowed lighsaber's blade suddenly elongated and turned silver to impale the neck of a Dark One. He shut off the blade in order to quickly remove the weapon and then reactivated it just in time to prevent a blast of silver white energy from taking his head off. He slashed the silver blade at the neck of a second Dark One and blocked fire from a third with his green-bladed lightsaber. Tahiri made a rending motion with her hand, tearing the head off the first Dark One.

Tahiri suddenly spun around, and created a bubble of Force energy around her and Seff, as klaxons screamed from her subconscious mind. The miniature deflector shield rippled violently as it took on enemy fire from a trio of Dark Ones.

#

The Galactic Alliance troops and the YVH Droids were proving almost useless against these Dark Ones. But the droid gunships, on the other hand, were managing to do some damage. Though, they were also taking loses. One of the gunships mowed down a few mechanized warriors, only to be shot down by some of their comrades. The gunship slammed into ground, but managed to crush one of its attackers beneath it. It was followed by an explosion as a well aimed blaster bolt struck the downed gunship's port missile rack.

One of the Dark Ones leveled a blade at some bushes and fired a blast at the head Yantahar had hidden, not so well it turned out. Fire from a passing gunship quickly reduced the being to slag. "We lost the head," he told Kyp.

"There will be plenty more," responded the Jedi Master.

#

In orbit

The wings of the Razor Luke Skywalker was chasing suddenly bent forward. But the Jedi Master was already rolling his X-wing onto its left S-foil. The Razor, however, remained where it was. His son Ben, who'd been coming at the Razor's former 'front', rolled his X-wing onto its right S-foil so he didn't fly right into the thing. He then pulled his X-wing up relative to his current position, and continued the roll until he could see his father's X-wing through the top of the canopy.

Ben then formed up with his father to chase after the Razor. The two Skywalkers were forced to split up as the enemy fighter suddenly reversed course. The Razor rose up onto one of its sides as it came toward Ben. The X-wing's canopy suddenly popped off and, as the Razor began to tear through the fighter, the seat launched Ben off into space.

As Ben tumbled through space, he glimpsed another Star Destroyer blowing up. The third one he'd seen get destroyed. And so, with nothing better to do, he began to ponder the many times C-3PO had predicted doom, for himself and those around him. He almost laughed as he imagined the golden protocol droid. running through corridors shouting, "We're all doomed!" _And you'd probably be right this time. _That last bit was not funny.

It occurred to Ben that the Razor probably wouldn't cut him in half, and that he'd be left to freeze or suffocate to death. It would be like going to sleep; there were far worse ways to die.

His father's X-wing came into view. The Razor practically had him on the run. Was the Jedi Grand Master fated to be killed by a... The Razor suddenly exploded, and the _Sarlagesus_ came up from under Ben. Tionne Solusar, again manning the ventral laser turret, sent to him a sense of reassurance. But, if something didn't change soon, Ben would just be getting blown up inside the _Sarlagesus_. _I'll get burned to death instead of freezing to death. Yip..._

#

There was a great explosion of light which was replaced by a mighty alloy dagger less than a second later. Sheets of crimson fire issued from the arrowhead shaped vessel's sides, and rained down upon the Dark ship. Another _Vanquisher_-class Star Destroyer. So, that was what Dif Scaur had been hiding. Admiral Bwua'tu was, of course, beyond relieved. But, he found it very disconcerting that Scaur had known about this and not a top Galactic Alliance admiral. That, however, was a concern for another time. "

The Bothan admiral began issuing new orders to his fleet; the enemy forces had been caught off guard by the gargantuan _Vanquisher_-class Star Destroyer, and Bwua'tu was going to take full advantage of it. _If they let me_, he amended with a subtle snarl as the Dark Ships began backing away and entering hyperspace. Clouds of Razors continued to swarm about. Star Destroyers and fighters alike began destroying the enemy fighters. The carrier ships had been forced to leave their fighters behind. Evidently, the Razors lacked hyperdrives. But, Bwua'tu was certain that Dark Fleet was already in the process of changing this.

#

Surface of Kuat

Squadrons of X-wings and A-wings soared through the air, annihilating ranks of the Dark Ground Forces. Two of Tahiri and Seff's opponents were blasted out of existence, and the pair made short work of the remaining enemy. The two Jedi surveyed the damage. The ground was littered with dead Galactic Alliance soldiers; only a small number had survived. And many lay wounded. It was all too similar to the scene two years ago, aboard the _Errant Venture_, after Abeloth had taken Coruscant and forced the defending Alliance fleet to retreat to Kuat. There were Dark Ones and droids, too. But they didn't care about that right now.

Tahiri picked up the severed head of one of the Dark Ones; it was still alive. Inside the head must have been some sort of machinery which the brain inside alive. The Dark One's mind was a part of a vast intelligence. Tahiri was deeply disturbed by the hatred this being had for her, especially when she considered how faint its life force was.

Seff walked over to Tahiri, holding another severed head. This head's brain was dead and, unlike the other one, this one didn't seem as though it ever had been alive..

"They're different," Seff commented, having noticed the same thing.


	4. Chapter 4

**Star Destroyers belonging to the Empire shall be referred to as Imperial Star Destroyers-not to be confused with the **_**Imperator**_**-class Star Destroyer.**

_Akbar_

"I was pretty sure Threepio's prophecy of doom was finally gonna come true," Ben said, as he removed the heated blanket Tionne had put over him after he'd been taken aboard the _Sarlagesus_.

"Darn near did," Luke said of C-3PO's grim prediction.

"Dif came through, then?"

Luke nodded as he sipped his tea. "With a _Vanquisher_. The _Turk Brand_."

"Admiral Bwua'tu didn't tell us about that," Ben commented with a frown.

"He didn't know," Luke said.

"Scaur isn't big on sharing information," Ben agreed. "So, what else did I miss?"

"One of the Dark Fleets just attacked Bastion," Luke said. "But, Lecersen somehow managed to ambush them with a reserve he had waiting at Belkadan. His fleet suffered moderate losses, but was able to drive them off. With Plagueis' help, I'm sure."

"The dark man," Ben said. "If it wasn't for these Dark ships, Lecersen's fleet probably would've attacked the Alliance."

"Unless Plagueis foresaw something and had the fleet created for that."

"You're starting to sound like Corran," Ben commented.

Luke shook his head in amusement, and took another sip of his tea. "I sent Tahiri and Seff to that SEDI outpost in the Bedlam system." SEDI stood for the aptly named Search for Extra-Dimensional Intelligence. "The scientists found an object they think came through a trans-dimensional rift."

#

Bedlam system: SEDI Outpost 6578

Seff, who'd just gotten out of his X-wing and a male Gotal in a white lab coat met Tahiri at the bottom of the _Jade Shadow's_ boarding ramp. "Jorgan Tark," the man introduced himself.

Tahiri shook the man's hand and introduced herself.

"If you'll follow me." The Gotal said nothing about the lightsabers hanging from the Jedis' belts as they walked down several hallways. "The thing we found started broadcasting a signal shortly after all them attacks started."

Seff nodded. "And those attacks started shortly after that expedition was supposed to investigate that cloud of dark matter."

"_Magrody Science Journal_?"

"Yeah, great holomag," Seff said. "You know if those… whatever they were, were hiding in clouds of dark matter that would explain how those attacks could be so spread out."

"I know some of the researchers that have been mapping the locations of dark matter clouds. I could get in touch with them and have the data sent to you. Here we are," the Gotal said as they entered a lab room.

"Cho Nar," a male Quarren in another white lab coat introduced himself. He wore a pair of MagniGoggles and stood by a large egg shaped object. It was a deep coppery bronze color, like the carapace of a destroyer droid. About the base of the egg was gold colored material about the width of a human hand. Four bands of the same color and width radiated up from the base to join in a circle at the top. "We believe she came through an inter-dimensional rift. Bedlam is known for certain strange activity."

"Luke Skywalker had an encounter with an extra-dimensional being," Tahiri said.

"Waru is what it called itself, yes?"

Tahiri nodded.

Jorgan Tark turned toward Tahiri and shook his head. "Now you've done it. Cho has no choice but to lecture us all on how a crystallized star and a blackhole could open a trans-dimensional rift."

"We studied that report," Cho Nar said. "Waru most likely came from a universe with four spatial dimensions."

"And that," Jorgan added with a sigh. And Cho Nar went on and on. "Well, that was just fascinating," Tark said, after his colleague had finally stopped talking. "Now, can we get back to the egg?"

"Of course," Nar said. He gesture to the egg. "Magnificent, isn't she?"

"Egg-squisite," Seff replied, compelling Tahiri to roll her eyes. He reached out toward it in the Force. "I think someone's in there. But it's hard to tell. It's…"

"Fuzzy?" Nar asked.

"Yeah."

The Quarren nodded. "We ran a whole bunch of scans. All they told was that the thing was heavily shielded." He nodded toward Jorgan. "Tark thinks it could even withstand gamma radiation."

"Hey, just 'cause we can't figure it out doesn't mean someone else can't."

"True." The Quarren turned to Seff and Tahiri. "We tried a laser cutter on the thing. A plasma torch, certain types of acid… But what we haven't tried is the Force."

"We'll see what we can do," Tahiri said.

"Can't guarantee anything, though," Seff added. He and Tahiri just stood and stared at the egg a few minutes. And then Seff stepped forward and put both his hands on it. There was a brief sense of alarm from Tahiri, which soon faded after nothing happened.

The Quarren opened his mouth to say something. Jorgan shook his head. "Don't distract him."

"I think I've got it," Seff said. The others watched in amazement as a section of the egg irised open. The Jedi and the scientists then jumped back as a whitish liquid spilled out onto the floor.

In the middle of the chamber was a mushroom shaped nodule. Ensconced in the side of it was what resembled a spook crystal with gray black metal spiraling about it. Some sort of tube went from the nodule to a sac which was slumped against the inside of the chamber. The being inside appeared to be humanoid.

Seff carefully ducked through the hole. The sac began squirming, and he felt a sense of claustrophobic panic start to build up in the occupant. He knelt down beside her, yes it was a female presence.

Underneath the membrane of the sac he saw what resembled a human face. Seff ripped the membrane open near the mouth. And she started gasping. "It's okay," he said as he tore the membrane away from her face.

Her eyes fluttered open. Seff had never seen such beautiful eyes. They were multi-colored, like a cosmic gas cloud, with flecks of copper. Her pupils were small slits, like those of a feline. The eyes closed seconds later as she passed out.

#

Seff sat by the woman-from-the-egg's bedside as the scientists ran scans and conducted other medical tests. She appeared very close to human, but there were some obvious differences, aside from her eyes, such as her slightly pointed ears and a slender tail which ended in a poisonous, arrowhead-shaped stinger.

And there were more subtle things, such as the slight purple hue to her brownish skin. Her long hair, which appeared black at first, was actually dark shades of indigo and jade. At her left temple was a lock of deep pink hair. And there was a peculiar, yet lovely sharpness to her facial features.

Some of the internal organs were also slightly different, in form and location. The most noticeable difference was that her heart was in the center of her chest and was surrounded by several serpentine organs that must have been lungs. Her body temperature was also a little higher than a human's.

Cho Nar frowned at the brain scan. "She's in a coma right now. Don't know for how long. And she has significant damage to the temporal lobe. It looks like someone erased some of her memories."

Tahiri and Jorgan Tark walked over to them. "I don't see any sort of data ports inside that egg," she said. Tark seemed slightly disappointed. He looked over at the crystal, then at Seff.

Seff got up and walked over to the crystal. It wasn't a spook crystal. Whatever it was began drawing on the Force and glowing as the Jedi picked it up. The light grew brighter, and the object began humming like a lightsaber, though lower in pitch. The metal suddenly seemed to corkscrew outward, as though it was growing. It reminded Seff of how carbon nano-tubes seemed to almost assemble themselves. Points of light appeared in the empty spaces and began growing. The staff suddenly became heavier as that light seemed to solidify into crystal. The two twisted ends of the staff untwisted themselves into razor sharp spear tips.

Seff placed the staff back on the table. After a moment it stopped drawing on the Force, and reverted back to its original state. He looked at the comatose woman; he hadn't felt the least bit of Force sensitivity from her. Seff glanced back at the staff, then at Nar. "I think this weapon might allow her to use the Force."

"That would make her a Force-user," the Quarren scientist reasoned.

"I don't think she can use the Force without it, though. But, yes."

A female Devaroniun walked over to Tahiri and Seff. The females looked like they belonged to a different species than the males. Whereas the males were completely bald the females were covered in short, soft fur. They lacked horns and had more versatile teeth. "I think you should see this," the Devaroniun said, pointing to the machine with which she was analyzing the comatose woman's blood. She led the Jedi over and pointed at the screen. There was an image of a blood cell with a high concentration of organelles that resembled midichlorians. "Ever seen anything like this before?"

"They look a bit like midichlorians," Tahiri said slowly.

The Devaroniun nodded. "That's what I thought." She frowned. "But not exactly like midichlorians?"

"They seem… less developed," Tahiri explained. She pulled out her comlink. "I'm going to call Luke, see what he wants us to do." She spoke to the Jedi Master a couple minutes then shut off the device. That weapon must help her access the Force. I should tell Master Skywalker about all this, see what he wants us to do." She spoke to Luke a few moments. "He wants us to take the woman and the egg back with us. And we've been transferred to the _Turk Brand_."

Nar reached into one of his pockets and handed Seff a datacard. "If you're going to be taking the egg, you'll need my notes."

"Thanks."

#

"I'll take the X-wing back," Tahiri offered to Seff after they and the scientists had secured the comatose woman, in one of the _Jade Shadow's_ seats, and the egg, in the ship's X-wing hold.

"If you're okay with that," Seff responded.

"Would I have offered if I wasn't?" she asked lightly.

"I guess not." Seff knew that it must have been obvious to Tahiri that he was quite fond of the woman-from-the-egg, and that he'd want to be there when she woke up.

#

Hapes Consortium

Two Interdictor cruisers dropped out of hyperspace, one to port and the other to starboard of the Dark Fleet. Their gravity well projectors came online, trapping the enemy ships. Imperial Star Destroyers, the double-disks of Hapan Battle Dragons, and _Nova_-class Assault cruisers surrounded the seed shaped vessels, pounding away mercilessly. Other Imperial and Hapan capital ships were targeting and vaping individual Razors with the precision of a neurosurgeon. Power had been almost completely shunted from the portions of the vessels' deflector shields not under fire from the enemy fleet.

It was a somewhat risky strategy, reflected Moff Zedekiah Gatterweld. But it was incredibly effective, as the areas under fire were greatly strengthened. He had even gone so far as to order any unnecessary lighting aboard every ship to be shut off. The monitor screens aboard the bridge of the _Void Demon_ were plenty bright enough; Gatterweld hadn't realized just how bright until now.

A few minutes later the battle was over; the Dark Fleet, having been unable to retreat to hyperspace, lay in utter ruin. Zedekiah Gatterweld relaxed, and felt a weight against his leg as he let go of the device in his left pocket and pulled out his hand.

#

Corellian System

Bothan Admiral Traest Kre'fey had brought the First Fleet to the Corellian system over concerns that the new Diktat intended to reestablish the Corellian Confederacy. Galactic Alliance Intelligence had found an inordinate amount of funds going into the Corellian shipyards and into the production of ordnance.

The Confederacy had formed over fifteen years ago. This illegitimate government had made an unsuccessful attempt to secede from the Alliance, resulting in a catastrophic civil war.

But, with the recent reports of the Dark Fleets, Admiral Kre'fey was not concerned about a civil war. The First Fleet, which included a number of Star Destroyers and Bothan Assault cruisers, including his flagship the _Ralroost_, waited alongside a sizable Corellian fleet in anticipation of an attack by one of the Dark Fleets.

"We've been waiting almost a day," Jedi Master Corran Horn commented. He and the Barabel Jedi Master Saba Sebatyne had lent their squadrons to Kre'fey's fleet. "Maybe, they just wanted us to think they were coming," Corran continued. "This Dark Fleet could then attack another place, and we'd be out of the way for a while." Corran had played a few Chess games against Gavin and knew what it was like to have his pieces blocked in.

"And if you were wrong, and we left?" Traest Kre'fey asked.

"I wasn't suggesting we leave," Corran clarified. "But, if I'm right…" he let the sentence hang, unfinished.


	5. Chapter 5

_Turk Brand_

"Scaur wants us train the Midichlore subjects," Luke Skywalker told his son Ben, as the two walked to the room Cilghal was using as a lab.

"If they're gonna have the Force, we might as well teach them the right way to use it."

"That's pretty much what I said," Luke agreed. He sighed. "We may not like this whole Midichlore thing, but maybe it was supposed to happen. We've been losing a lot of pilots to these Razors. Those foot soldiers are pretty nasty, too. We need a more effective way to fight these Dark Ones."

Cilghal and Lowbacca exchanged greetings with Luke and Ben as the two Skywalkers entered the lab. The elder Skywalker filled the two in on his conversation with the Chief of State as he and Ben were led to an autopsy table. Resting on the table was the severed forearm of one of the Dark Ones. Attached to it were various wires, some of which were connected to a small black box with a series of buttons and dials. Others wires were connected to a computer monitor.

Lowbacca pressed a red button and the forearm seemed to melt and then reform into an incredibly sharp blade. He pressed the button a second time and the arm reverted to its original state. "The fingers are housed in a meta-material. An electrical current turns the arm into a blade and sharpens the edges. I believe the Dark Fleet's fighters rely on a similar mechanism," said Lowbacca in rough, but passable basic.

"The brains are even more interesting," Cilghal said as she led Lowbacca and the others to another table. "It died shortly after we brought it aboard," she said, gesturing toward a dissected brain which lay in pieces around what looked like some sort of scaffolding. "I believe this machinery is what enables them to create their hive mind. It likely also serves to enhance their intelligence.

"The brain seems to have been grown around it," Cilghal went on. "And the genome only contains the information necessary for the growth and maintenance of the brain. It's as though the rest of the genome has been deleted. There aren't even any gender chromosomes.

"And here's the disturbing part," she said as she typed a few things into a nearby monitor. It showed a detailed analysis of the brain's DNA. "The closest match for what's left of the genome is the Columi."

The Columi had developed enormous brains, with four cerebrums. Their pervasive use of technology had caused their limbs to atrophy to the point where they had become completely useless. To move, they relied on powerbodies-humanoid machines they sat in and controlled with their massive brains.

Luke frowned at the dissected brain. "It looks a bit small for a Columi brain."

"It's not quite as developed," Cilghal agreed. "I believe we're dealing with a primitive variant of the Columi, Precolumi if you will."

"These Precolumi must be ancient, then," Luke surmised.

"Tens of thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of years. They must have had some remarkable stasis systems."

"That does explain why we didn't pick up their mobilizations. They were already in position. But why are they attacking in the first place?"

"I can only guess," Cilghal said.

Luke glanced at the mechanical brain, which had also been disassembled. Some of the sections were connected to wires leading to more monitors. "I tried to get some data from it," Lowbacca rumbled. "But it appears to be too badly damaged."

"I believe that once the organic brain begins to fail the consciousness is transferred to a mechanical brain," Cilghal added.

"That sounds like entechment," Luke commented.

#

_Void Demon_

Zedekiah Gatterweld placed his left hand in his pocket as he headed toward his quarters. He wrapped his fingers around the family heirloom he carried with him. The Imperial Head of State frowned. Someone or something was following him.

The Moff took the metal-wrapped crystal out of his pocket. Almost instantaneously, like corkscrewing roots, the metal seemed to grow. It started to hum as Gatterweld spun around. Light appeared and then solidified within the hollow spaces which had formed. The end pointing downward sharpened into a spear tip. At the other end, the roots straightened and one of them bulged outward into a half circle. The rim of this half circle sharpened into an ax blade.

Gatterweld felt immense power enter his body as he swung the weapon to his left. There were sparks and the humming increased in volume as the ax blade intercepted a red shaft of light. A lightsaber. Zedekiah used the force of the impact to leap backward.

The Moff's opponent wore a black robe. What Zedekiah could see of this 'man' was covered in pale armor. He looked at this dark man's… the attacker had no face.

Gatterweld reached out toward the dark man in the Force. He frowned. Was this man dead or alive? The being was incredibly powerful in the dark side of the Force. He was clearly a Sith.

The Sith charged forward, allowing to robe to fly off and settle to the floor. Zedekiah reversed his grip on the ax spear and slammed the spear end down on the lightsaber blade. The Moff flicked his wrist to chop at the Sith's left leg. The dark man spun to the right. He extended his left hand.

Zedekiah was lifted up into the air, and thrown backward. He reached out into the Force and back flipped. A black tongue of flame came his way as his feet hit the ground. The Moff twirled his weapon, using the right side of the ax blade to deflect the black fire into the floor. Gatterweld pointed the spear tip toward the dark man. A bolt of bluish energy shot forth. The Sith easily deflected it with his lightsaber.

The two charged at each other, ax spear and lightsaber clashing as they met in the middle of the corridor. A savage melee ensued, in which neither seemed to be gaining any ground. And then the dark man began drawing more heavily on the dark side, his crimson lightsaber moving almost too fast for Zedekiah Gatterweld to block.

The armored man suddenly leapt into the air, and kicked the Moff in the sternum. The dark man gestured with the Force, as Gatterweld fell backward, plucking the weapon from the Moff's hand. Zedekiah reached out toward the weapon, but couldn't pry it from the dark man's grasp. After a moment or so, he gave up, and his weapon reverted to its pocket sized state. He'd been out of contact with the weapon for too long, and could no longer access the Force.

The dark man swung the lightsaber toward Gatterweld's neck, but at the last moment shut off the blade. He tossed the metal wrapped crystal back to the Moff.

"You fight well, Zedekiah Gatterweld," the dark man said.

"Not as well as you, sir." The Moff made no move to reactivate his weapon. "Who are you?" he asked as he pocketed his weapon and stood up.

"You may call me Darth Plagueis." He nodded toward Gatterweld's pocket. "I admire that you realize that you can't best me in combat."

"And I admire that you did not take my head off," the Moff responded.

"That would have been counterproductive," the Sith Lord responded.

"Are you the one Lecersen has been working with?"

Plagueis nodded. "And you have been working with him. I believe an alliance would benefit the both of us."

Zedekiah nodded. "We ought to meet with Lecersen to make sure we'll all on the same file."

"But before that," Darth Plagueis said, "I must know what you are. You clearly are not human."

"If I tell you what I am, will you tell me what _you_ are?"

"Of course," Plagueis said. "It's only fair."

Gatterweld bent his head forward slightly, and removed a contact lens from each eye. He lifted his head, revealing a pair of jade colored eyes, with flecks of silver and an almost fluorescent lime-green. And then a tail, ending in a spark looking arrowhead, came out from behind him. There was also a very blue hue to his skin.

"I don't recall encountering your species before," Plagueis mused.

"My species has a knack for remaining hidden," Zedekiah Gatterweld explained.

#

_Turk Brand_

Seff described in great detail his and Tahiri's visit to Bedlam's SEDI outpost after he and Cilghal had settled the woman-from-the-egg into a medical cot. "She was awake for under a minute, and she's been in a coma ever since. Aside from that she seems perfectly healthy."

"Tekli and I went over the data the scientists sent us on her physiology," Cilghal said. "The damage to her temporal lobe concerns me; it might have contributed to her coma, and could make it hard to bring her out. But we'll try," Cilghal said as she turned to her assistant Tekli. The diminutive Chandra Fan Jedi was attaching sensors to various places on the comatose woman's head.

"I'd like to stay," Seff said. "I think she'd appreciate seeing a familiar face. If she wakes up, I mean."

"Of course."

Cilghal put her hands on the unconscious woman's her temples, trying to get into her mind. It was like running into a ferrocrete wall. The woman's mind was completely unresponsive. It was as though her brain simply didn't have enough power to be conscious. Cilghal looked at the crystal with the metal-like material spiraling around it and gave the Mon Calamari equivalent of a sigh. "We might be able to wake her with that Force weapon of hers. It could kill her, but I believe it might be the only way."

Seff picked up the crystal and tossed it to the Jedi healer. "Kind of like jump-starting a speeder."

"A crude analogy, but yes," Cilghal said as she examined the device. The crystal seemed to know that she could use, or at least channel the Force, and began to hum and glow. The light black metal that surrounded it seemed to grow like some sort of vine, but at an incredibly unnatural speed. At regular intervals points of light appeared within the metal scaffolding. The light grew and then, as it seemed to solidify, it became slightly heavier. The 'vines' continued to grow for a few more seconds and then the ends untwisted to become razor sharp spear points.

Cilghal felt an incredible surge of Force energy. She'd only ever felt such power in the Force from a Jedi Master. She relaxed her grip and the weapon reverted to its original state. "Yes," she said. "If it doesn't kill her it should certainly wake her."

Cilghal gripped the crystal a little more tightly, prompting the device to morph back into a staff. She gently touched part of the staff to the unconscious woman's palm. The staff began humming like the engine of a _Lambuggati _speeder and lit up like a massive LED light.

The woman's back suddenly arched and she gasped. Her blood pressure and heart rate suddenly spiked. Cilghal eased her grip on the staff, which promptly morphed back into the metal-wrapped crystal, and injected something into the unconscious woman's arm. The Jedi Master put the crystal on a nearby side table, where her patient would be able to see it, as the numbers normalized. And as the Mon Calamari Jedi did that, she reached out to the woman in the Force to keep her mind from sinking back into the coma. Moments later those beautiful eyes fluttered open.

"You're safe here." Seff told her. He could tell that she recognized him, and she seemed to understand him. "I'm Seff Hellin."

The woman remained silent a minute. She saw her weapon on the nearby table and relaxed visibly.

"My name is Cilghal," the Mon Calamari Jedi said when the woman glanced over at her. She just looked at her a few moments. "Do you remember your name?" she gently prompted.

"Andromeda," the woman said a few seconds later.

"Do you feel up to answering some questions?" Seff asked.

"Of course."

"We noticed some brain damage consistent with memory loss," Seff said.

"I must have had some sensitive information that couldn't be allowed to fall into enemy hands."

Seff nodded. In the espionage business it was usually best for one's operatives not to know everything, just in case one of them was captured. "Do you recall where you came from?"

"I don't remember the name of my homeworld, but I know that most of my people currently live in another dimension," Andromeda said.

Seff glanced over at the 'egg'. "So, is that pod you arrived in a sort of inter-dimensional transport?"

"Yes."

"There was some sort of fluid in the pod with you."

"The transition between dimensions can be very dangerous. The fluid acts as a sort of coolant."

Seff nodded. "The outside of the pod seemed shielded as well."

"Do you know where this other dimension is located?" Cilghal asked.

"No, but I know that it can only be reached by passing through a rift in the fabric of space-time."

"That's what the scientists who found you said," Seff said. "Do you know the name of your species?"

"Not what my people call themselves. But many ancient races called us the Anunnaki, which translates roughly as 'those who from the heavens came'. Most of the sentient races today refer to us as the Architects or the Celestials."

"We've heard of them," Cilghal said. "Many people believe that the Celestials had somehow managed to become one with the Force."

"I've heard nothing about this," Andromeda said. "I imagine it was a conclusion other races had come to after we fled to the other dimension."

"Fled," Cilghal repeated.

"My people had created beings called the Nephilim."

Something suddenly occurred to Seff, and he took out his comlink, typed in some things, and turned the screen toward Andromeda. "Do you recognize this?" he asked of the dark mechanical being on the screen."

She looked mortified. "You've awakened them."

"Well, not us specifically," Seff clarified.

"They were created to protect the galaxy."

Both Cilghal and Seff frowned.

"Something went wrong with their programming," she said. "Someone must have hacked into the mainframe and inserted malicious code. The Nephilim began destroying whatever they could. Some of our programmers managed to get into the mainframe and shut them down. Any attempt to destroy them would have triggered their self preservation programming, so my people sent the Nephilim into clouds of dark matter where they were supposed to remain inactive."

"There was an expedition into one of these clouds," Seff said. Dark matter blocked most outside signals because of the way it bent light. "The team never reported back."

"The team sent out signals when they were inside that cloud," Andromeda surmised. "The Nephilim interpreted it as an attack. With their self preservation routine activated I do not believe they cannot be shut down as they were before."

"You said the Nephilim were created to protect the galaxy," Cilghal said after a momentary silence.

"Many ages ago my people encountered a hostile race from another galaxy. I believe the people here call them the Yuuzhan Vong," Andromeda explained.

"They tried to invade this galaxy about thirty years ago," Seff said. "We defeated them."

Andromeda nodded. "That is why we did not need to reactivate the Nephilim; that was to be a last resort. We waited many ages for the Yuuzhan Vong to return. The Nephilim were tasked with keeping other civilizations planet bound so that they could not become a threat to us. There had just been a terrible war, and we wanted to avoid future wars."

"After my people were forced to shut down the Nephilim we fled to the other dimension. Some of us remained behind so that they could send a drone into one of the clouds to reactivate the Nephilim should the need arise. They also reported back from time to time on the affairs of this dimension."

Cilghal gestured to Seff, and the Jedi Knight handed over Andromeda's weapon.

"Our people have the ability to channel the Force," Andromeda explained. "But we cannot access it directly."

"And that's what this does," Cilghal said.

"Yes." She remained silent a moment. "That metal-like material is a nano-meta-material composite.

"Makes sense. So when the staff gets heavier, that must be because it converts energy into matter." Seff sounded a tiny bit doubtful.

"It isn't _quite_ matter. The light is on the cusp of being matter, but it is still energy."

"_The Problem with Energy to Matter Conversion_," Seff said, quoting the name of an article he'd recently read in the _Magrody Science Journal_. While matter could easily be converted to energy, energy to matter was a whole different angry Nexu. The galaxy's most brilliant scientists still hadn't figured out how to do it.

"How long must I stay in this room?"

"You could leave today if you like," Cilghal said. It would be pointless to keep her in the medical ward unnecessarily.

**Don't forget to review. Constructive criticism can only help.**


	6. Chapter 6

_Turk Brand_

Yantahar Bwua'tu and Tahiri Veila watched seventy two Galactic Alliance pilots walk into the room. Along with four other pairs of Jedi, the two had been given a class of Midichlore subjects to train in the proper use of the Force. But considering that all these recruits were all at least in their mid-twenties, this would be a challenge. Older individuals tended to be less receptive to learning.

And these people had not been born with the ability to touch the Force. Yantahar was not sure how that would affect things, but he'd be surprised if it didn't have some sort of impact.

A tall, dark skinned man, with long dreadlocks walked over to the Bothan Jedi. "Ziggy," Yantahar said. He'd become friends with Ziggy the year before, when he and Yaqueel Saav'etu had gone undercover to join Admiral Bwua'tu's security detail. Ziggy had later helped the two Bothan Jedi evacuate the admiral from the _Coruscanti Phoenix_, after two attempts on the admiral's life.

"Yantahar. How you been, man?"

"I've been quite well. I see you're taking part in the Midichlore trials."

"Hey, why not?"

Yantahar moved his mouth to say something, but thought better of it.

Ziggy seemed to sense his friend's concern. "The doctors said it was safe," he went on.

"Why don't we just see how it all turns out," Tahiri suggested.

"I'm cool with that," Ziggy responded. "You must be Tahiri, then." He looked briefly at the scars on her forehead. Ziggy turned and joined his classmates when he realized he was staring.

A few minutes later, after a brief lecture-there actually was such a thing-Ziggy and the seventy one other students were walking around the room blindfolded, doing their best not to trip over the obstacles strewn across the floor. The goal was for them to navigate with the Force, alone.

Tahiri shook her head and made a sound of mild exasperation as she watched people trip and stumble. One of the students walked over to her and Yantahar with a bloody nose. He sat down in a chair while one of the medics tended to his injury.

"Are you willing to give it another chance?" Yantahar asked him.

"Sure. The cute medic can take care of me after I hurt myself again." The medic rolled her eyes as the young man stood up.

Yantahar looked over at Ziggy to check his progress. The prospective Jedi was standing still, and a second later a woman tripped over something to land in front of him. Ziggy deftly stepped over her.

"Looks like we may have a winner, here," Tahiri commented.

#

Andromeda sniffed the orange once more and then bit into to it, peel and all. She made a slurping sound as she sucked up the juice which threatened to escape. Seff watched the spectacle in silent fascination. He noticed that her teeth were slightly larger than those of a human, and seemed sharper.

Andromeda looked at him and cocked her head upon finishing the fruit.

"Never seen someone eat an orange peel before," Seff explained. He looked down at his orange peel. Andromeda smiled mischievously, snatched up the other orange peel, and put the whole thing in her mouth.

Seff had volunteered to educate her and explain how things worked or, in the case of the senate, how things didn't work. He'd also been tasked with keeping an eye on her. _And it's darn near impossible not to. _

Seff understood the concerns Luke Skywalker, Admiral Bwua'tu, and many others held regarding her. They had no way of knowing what had been erased from her memory. And if the Celestials really did want to help the Galactic Alliance fight the Nephilim, why had the only sent Andromeda?

Why was she really here? She likely didn't know, herself. Perhaps there were certain triggers that would remind her of her mission. And when she remembered, would she change? Was the woman he was convinced he was falling in love with even real?

#

_Errant Venture_

"I hope I'm doing the right thing, here," Luke told Ben as the two watched a nine year old Mara Padme Fel run up to Jaina and Jag. "We don't know where all of these Dark Fleets are," the Jedi Master went on. "So we have to assume the _Venture_ could run into one of these fleets no matter where we put it."

"And you figure the _Venture_ will be in less danger with Bwua'tu's fleet because of the _Turk Brand_," Ben reasoned. The Jedi Academy had been moved from Shedu Maad to the _Errant Venture_ the year before, over concerns that Dif Scaur would use the assassination of the late Chief of State Turk Brand as an excuse to come after the Jedi. It had later been proven that a clone of Allana had been responsible. But that had done little, if anything, to change Scaur's dislike, hatred perhaps, of the Jedi. As Director of Alliance Intelligence, it was quite possible that he knew of Shedu Maad.

And there was also the continued presence of an Imperial fleet, led Imperial Head of State Moff Gatterweld, in the Hapes Cluster. Shedu Maad was not far from there. There was a good chance that Scaur, if he did indeed know about the former location of the Jedi Academy, had informed Gatterweld of this.

The Jedi didn't know enough about Gatterweld's agenda to know if he could be trusted. Chances were that if he was a friend of Dif Scaur's, he, in fact, could not be trusted. And any Moff, except Lecersen, of course, could claim to be an Imperial moderate.

The girl ran over to Luke and Ben, with her parents following behind her.

"Hi, Mara Padme," Ben said as he hugged his cousin. He still felt a twinge of sadness when he said the name 'Mara', which had been his mother's name.

"How was your class?" Luke asked Jaina.

His niece groaned. "I prefer teaching Padawans. They're cuter. And most of them are naturals, more or less. But these guys…" she groaned again.

Luke nodded sympathetically.

"How'd the meeting with Bwua'tu go?" Jaina asked, wanting to change the subject.

Luke blew out his breath. "It was informative. A Nephilim fleet hit the Hapes Consortium yesterday, and Gatterweld's fleet wiped them out."

"Completely?" Jaina asked.

Luke nodded. "It looks like he might be working with the Sith."

"Perhaps Gatterweld sees it as the only way to fight the Nephilim," Jag suggested.

"Maybe," Luke said, shrugging his shoulders. "Or he could truly be aligned with the Sith."

"The Moff might not be as moderate as we thought, then," Jag said.

"That's what I'm worried about," Luke said. The Jedi Master paused the conversation to hug Mara Padme and talk briefly to her. "Bwua'tu also spoke with Kre'fey and Darklighter; still no Nephilim activity. Corran thinks they're just trying to keep the Alliance fleets out of the way, which would mean those two Nephilim fleets are going to attack someplace else. But Kre'fey pointed out that the Nephilim could be waiting for the Alliance fleets to pull out."

"Any idea what other place the Nephilim could attack?" Jag asked.

"Some people are working on that."

#

Borleais

The Dark fleet was larger than Admiral Darklighter had expected. It appeared that part of the fleet that had been expected to hit the Corellian system had joined this fleet. Which meant the remainder of that fleet was likely too small to launch a successful attack the Corellian system. So where would they go.

The Chief of State had contacted Gavin a couple or so hours ago, and had instructed the admiral to hold Borleias if losses were not expected to reach an unacceptable level. But if Admiral Darklighter expected the losses to be too high, which they certainly would be if he stayed to fight, his fleet was to retreat to Bilbringi. And so the admiral had already issued the order. His fleet had already been outside Borlieas gravity in preparation for such an eventuality.

#

_Turk Brand_: Orbiting Kuat

"_Even now they make plans to overthrow you," the mysterious, shadowy being says._

Dif Scaur woke up in a cold sweat. He turned his head to the right, and could have sworn there'd been someone standing there. Some shadow he couldn't quite make out. Dif reached over and turned on the lights. And of course, there was no one there.

The Chief of State and Director of Alliance Intelligence sat up in his bed. He shook his head; he was far too old to be having night terrors. _Even now they make plans to overthrow you._ Who in the Void were _they_?

It then occurred to Dif that he'd been afraid of _something _for a while, now. Why else would he have so hastily approved trials of the drug Midichlore? Why else would he have commissioned the construction of a second _Vanquisher_-class Star Destroyer and not told anyone, not even Admiral Bwua'tu?

Scaur knew that neither Bwua'tu, nor his strongest allies much cared for him, but… _Even now they make plans to overthrow you._ A coup? A coup!

All this time Dif Scaur had been worried that Admiral Bwua'tu and his allies, especially the Jedi, had been preparing to stage a coup. And that strange shadowy figure had been Dif's subconscious warning him of it.

Dif picked up the remote resting on the table beside his bed and pressed a series of buttons. A portable sound system began playing one of his favorite musical standards. The ancient, classy music, with the big bands in the background, had always served to calm his nerves.

#

Kuat

Admirals Kre'fey and Bwua'tu had agreed with Admiral Darklighter's assessment that the Corellian system was not going to be attacked by the Nephilim. Thus, Kre'fey had brought his fleet to Kuat to join Bwua'tu's fleet.

The Diktat of Corellia, Victor Tarkin had kept his fleet in system, feeling that it was too risky to leave his system completely undefended. Kre'fey understood his concerns but, like Bwua'tu he also understood that the Alliance had to make a move.

#

An enormous Galactic Alliance fleet had gathered in defense of the capital world. The ships were mostly Bothan Assault cruisers and Star Destroyers, including the _Turk Brand_. There were also a few Mon Calamari cruisers.

With the addition of Corran's Rogue Squadron and Saba's Longfang Squadron, there were five squadron's of mostly Jedi pilots-Jagged Fel was not a Jedi. Each of these squadrons led an attack wing of what had been called Made Jedi.

Ziggy Carmichael did not particularly care for the term 'Made Jedi', but it was quicker than saying 'Midichlore subject'. He felt a mix of anticipation and fear from the seventy one other Midichlore trial participants in the attack wing led by Luke Skywalker's Twin Suns Squadron. _And they have reason to be afraid._ These Razors they were about to face could kill Jedi.

Space began to light up with the short lived starbursts of dozens of vessels exiting hyperspace. The darkness erupted with light as the Alliance fleet began trading fire with the Nephilim fleet. The Dark ships began disgorging their hordes of knife-like Razors.

Ziggy didn't feel anything from the enemy fleet at first, as Tahiri had said would be the case. So he probed deeper into the empty void he felt. And gasped as an invisible foot kicked him in the stomach. The hatred Ziggy felt in the Force made him nauseous and he recoiled from it.

He reached out toward the members of Twin Suns Squadron; they radiated an almost unnatural sense of calm. Of course, panicking had never done anyone any good. And these Jedi had had the Force far longer than any of the Made Jedi. Ziggy frowned at the use of that phrase he didn't like.

Ziggy felt a peculiar sort of _nudging_ through the Force as the attack wing, moving as a single entity, turned toward an incoming swarm of Razors. It was a strange feeling, this Force meld. He could feel himself inside other peoples' minds, and other people inside his mind. And yet, it was not the least bit intrusive.

He could sense that these Nephilim relied on something similar to link their minds, though it did not involve the Force.

The attack wing broke up into six groups of fourteen, each being led by a pair of Jedi. Ziggy's squadron dispersed upon meeting a swarm of Razors. Ziggy felt a lifeless point of energy coming toward him, and before he was completely aware of it, he was rolling his X-wing onto its left s-foils.

Ziggy experienced a sudden sense of nausea and mental anguish as a ragged hole was torn into the Force. One of the Alliance pilots had just died, unable to evade one of the Razors.

Without really thinking about it Ziggy fired off one of his proton torpedoes. _You gundark, you're wasting…_ There was an explosion less than a second later as the torpedo and a quartet of laser beams hit something, a Razor.

So this is what it was like to be guided by the Force. Ziggy had expected to be more conscious of what he was doing. But if the Force was telling him to do things that made strategic sense, then he didn't mind.

He joined two other pilots, and the trio easily vaped another Razor.

#

Deflector shields pulsed with psychedelic fire as the Galactic Alliance fleet and the Nephilim fleet slowly closed in on each other. The Bothan Assault cruisers used the larger Star Destroyers as cover. The _Turk Brand_, since it was the largest target in the Alliance fleet, hung back slightly, a Star Destroyer above, below, and to the rear right. If one of the Nephilim carrier ships tried to ram the _Brand_, one of those smaller Star Destroyers would be able to take the hit instead. The Alliance fleet also made sure to keep a gap in front of the _Brand_ so that it could escape if for some reason that became necessary.

The Dark Ships had spread out, in an attempt to surround Bwua'tu and Kre'fey's fleet, it seemed. Because of the Dark Ships' superior firepower and shield strength it seemed like the most logical and obvious thing to do. The obvious part had Admiral Bwua'tu worried. The Nephilim did not seem to like obvious. _So what are they really trying to do?_

In Chess games Nek Bwua'tu often managed to mislead opponents into thinking he was doing something he wasn't. Sometimes the other player would play right into his hand. Gavin Darklighter had beaten him a few times, but only by doing the unexpected.

So Admiral Bwua'tu had to do something unexpected. Something that didn't seem completely logical. Something potentially reckless?

He turned to Zuul Zuzu, his chief communications officer. "Send a tight-beam to the _Ralroost_."

With its starboard batteries blazing, the _Turk Brand_ turned so that the port side weapons could be brought to bear. A fourth Star Destroyer joined the _Brand's_ protection detail, taking up position to the rear left. A number of the Bothan Assault cruisers left the safety of the Star Destroyers they'd used for cover and began assailing some of the Nephilim carrier ships. Many of the Galactic Alliance vessels had shunted power from certain sections of their deflector shields not receiving fire. This power was put into other sections of the shields, as well weapons and propulsion.

Both fleets began to take losses, but the Dark fleet was losing vessels more quickly. Admiral Bwua'tu frowned; his and Kre'fey's strategy seemed to working too well. Were they _still_ playing into the enemy's hand?

It had been made known among the Galactic Alliance military that the Nephilim tended to use somewhat unusual battle tactics; the Nephililm had either learned or deduced this. Thus, they may have anticipated a strategy similar to the one Bwua'tu and Kre'fey were employing. But what other strategy could be used?

Zuul Zuzu turned a worried look on the admiral. "Luke Skywalker and I both have a very bad feeling about this," the Sullustan said, echoing Bwua'tu's feelings. She sighed. "Perhaps we should consider a retreat."

Of course, that was what the Nephilim wanted the Alliance fleet to do. And if Bwua'tu's suspicions were correct, and they often were, that's what they'd have to do. The Bothan admiral checked one of the tactical displays; most of the Alliance vessels were still in Kuat's gravity well.

#

"What if this is all just a bluff?" Han suggested to Leia, over the _Millennium Falcon's_ internal comm system, as he used the dorsal laser turret to help one of the Made Jedi vape another Razor.

"I sure hope so," Leia responded. If the Nephilim weren't bluffing, then…

At first Leia thought the _Turk Brand_ had just been destroyed. But when that mammoth flash of light dissipated, she was both relieved and mortified-to the point of nausea.

It resembled a gigantic wheel. In the center was a saucer shaped section. Eight spokes radiated from that section, to connect to an inner ring and then to an outer ring. The vessel resembled a monstrous, skeletal flying saucer.

Its orientation was peculiar, like a coin standing on its rim. Somewhat like a Medieval shield. Silver white energy blazed forward, slamming into deflector shields of the Alliance vessels. The Dark Ships began to reposition themselves, and with their Queen now in play, began overwhelming Alliance Star Destroyers. One of the unfortunate vessels tried, and failed, to ram one of its attackers as it was being torn apart.

In the center of the vessel was a large spherical chamber. Massive, artificially generated bolts of lightning flew through the air, continuing a strong electric field, and knocking electrons free of their atoms. These electrons, accelerating to near lightspeed, careened into the nuclei of other atoms, releasing gamma-rays. These gamma-rays, in turn reacted with atomic nuclei to create more electrons and their antimatter twins, positrons. The positrons flew to the bottom of the chamber where some were collected and stored. The positrons would eventually mix with the electrons. The resulting annihilation was what powered the ship. An antimatter engine. But more than that.

Thrace felt a dramatic increase in power output from the vessel. Curved panels near the top of the center sphere slid aside, and a large spire, ringed by four smaller ones, extruded through the hole. He could not let them take out the _Brand_. There had to be…

Thrace's gaze drifted toward the Star Destroyer to the right of the_ Turk_ _Brand_. It was there to protect the _Vanquisher_-class Star Destroyer. The Chiss Jedi reached out to the minds of the piloting crew. Thrace exerted his will upon them. The Star Destroyer suddenly lurched forward. The deflector shield rippled horribly and then was gone. Thrace felt thousands of lives… Everything went dark.

#

Ziggy felt a stabbing pain in his chest, and fought back an urge to vomit. Thousands of lives had just been gutted from the Force. An alarm suddenly went off in his mind, and he rolled his X-wing onto its right s-foils. He continued his roll to the ride so that he was upside down in relation to his previous position, and turned to join his wingmate in chasing after the Razor he'd just dodged. The two managed to vape the enemy fighter as its wings were bending forward and it was preparing to fly backwards, into one of the X-wings.

The call to retreat came over Ziggy's comm as he and his wingmate prepared to chase after another Razor.

#

"What in the Void was that?" Admiral Bwua'tu asked as the stars elongated, and melted into the mottled grey of hyperspace. That enormous Nephilim ship looked like one of the starships from those ancient sci-fi holos.

"A gamma ray burst?" someone ventured. "There weren't any major explosions. And a repulsor weapon would've crumpled it. And I don't know what else could've killed them all like that."

**Author's note: The scenario involving the artificial lightning storm is based on a real phenomenon, lightning leader theory, I think. **


	7. Chapter 7

_Turk Brand_: Orbiting Bilbringi

"I obviously didn't die back there," Thrace commented to Allana, who sat beside him on the medical cot. The Chiss Jedi spoke with a pronounced Imperial accent. Which he'd been doing more frequently as he remembered more about his mother Chaf'aria'nagaru. Fariana had served as a liaison between the Chiss Ascendency and the Imperial Remnant, and as a result had adopted a strong Imperial accent.

"I used our Force bond to restart your heart."

"A handy thing, that Force bond."

Allana smiled and kissed him. "So what exactly happened back there?"

"There was a massive energy spike from that… thing. I just assumed that it was pointing toward the _Brand_. "

"It was. And you used that other Star Destroyer to protect the _Brand_."

Thrace nodded. Allana felt a surge of guilt from Thrace, and gently squeezed his right hand. "I took control of their minds and made them move that Star Destroyer," he said.

"That Star Destroyer was there for that purpose. If its crew had known what you'd known, they'd have done the same thing."

Thrace nodded. "I know what I did saved thousands of lives, but I feel like I condemned the people in that other Star Destroyer to die."

"It's the day that it stops bothering you that you're in trouble," Allana said. "It looks like that giant saucer used a gamma weapon," she commented, changing the subject.

"Bad guys and their super weapons."

#

Yantahar fell into step beside Ziggy; his friend seemed distraught. "I felt all those people die, man. It was horrible. And those things. They really hate us; I didn't think anyone could hate someone else so much."

"I didn't, either," Yantahar admitted.

"I didn't think that kind of evil could even exist," Ziggy continued. "There's like this whole world that I never knew existed. It was incredible at first-it still is-but there's all this… ugliness. And it's all over the place. I'm sorry. I know I'm rambling, but…"

"It's fine, man," Yantahar assured him. "You need to talk right now."

Ziggy was silent for a few seconds. "Do you know if Yaqueel… "

"Has a boyfriend," Yantahar finished. "No, she doesn't."

"You think I'm her type?"

Yantahar frowned at his friend. "I know I'm not her type, and since you're not me…"

"I might have a shot."

#

Corellian system

"Sir, I just heard from Selonian Planetary Defense. The Nephilim are there. Trying to take the repulsor, they think. They arrived in drop ships."

Victor Tarkin, the current Diktat of the Corellian system turned from the viewport out of which he was gazing. "You know what to do," the man said grimly.

"Yes, sir," the officer said, saluting.

A massive curtain of red death rained down upon the surface of Selonia, vaporizing contingents of Nephilim soldiers, along with thousands of civilians and buildings. Victor Tarkin hated to be the one to do this, but it was necessary.

Victor's uncle Wilhuff Tarkin had been the one to order the destruction of Alderaan aboard the first Death Star. Victor doubted he'd particularly wanted to destroy the world, but he'd felt it had been necessary. And it had been; Vader could have snapped his neck with a mere wave of his hand.

Victor Tarkin had been a cadet in the Imperial Naval Academy a few years back. He'd hoped to follow in the footsteps of Tarkin and other Imperial greats, such as Grand Admiral Thrawn.

_But apparently I was _too_ much of an Imperial for this pathetic shadow of an Empire._ Indeed he had been thrown out of the academy because his views had been labeled too extreme.

#

_Millennium Falcon_: en route to Geonosis

Just over a year ago the Geonosians had entered into a business contract with the Colicoid Creation Nest and had begun constructing war droids. The droids were said to be improved versions of the Colicoid built droidekas. And they'd certainly have to be tough to take on the Nephilim.

Which was exactly what Dif Scaur had been hoping. So the Chief of State would be sending one of his most steadfast supporters the Falleen Senator Sanje Rehemma to Geonosis to broker some sort of deal with the Geonosian General Eorzag to purchase some of their droids should they prove acceptable.

Scaur had requested that Leia Organa Solo accompany the Senator because of her diplomatic skills. So Han, though reluctantly-he'd had some positively dreadful experiences with insectoids in the past-had agreed to go.

The Chief of State had also wanted a pair of Jedi-he did not consider Leia to be true Jedi, to her mild chagrin-to act as guards for Senator Rehemma. Luke had suggested that Seff and Andromeda should be the ones to go. Seff had not been assigned a class of Midichlore subjects to train in the use of the Force and Andromeda would only appear as a Force user when her staff was activated.

A few hours ago Scaur had informed Luke Skywalker that Corellian Diktat Victor Tarkin had ordered the surface of Selonia bombarded to destroy an army of Nephilim soldiers to keep them away from the planet's giant repulsor weapon. If the Nephilim had been created by the Celestials, and Luke saw no reason to believe they hadn't, then it was reasonable that the Dark Ones knew of the planetary repulsors. And the Nephilim did seem to employ a meta-material similar to that inside the planetary repulsors. If the Genosian-Colicoid built droids proved effective it could prevent other planets from having to be bombarded.

"Geonosians and Colicoids," Han remarked. "Now that's a match made beyond the Ninth Gate."

"Colicoids have been known to eat their business partners," Seff explained to Andromeda.

"It is unlikely that the Colicoids would eat the Geonosians," Threepio added.

"Yeah, 'cause the Geonosians know to stay the heck away from 'em," Han agreed.

"Somehow I don't think that's what our golden friend meant," Seff mused.

"The Geonosians' rather cadaverous appearance is highly unlikely to arouse the typical Colicoid's appetite. However, beings with significant amounts of visceral fat-"

"We get it Goldenrod," Han said tensely. "At least they ain't workin' with the Hutts."

"Gee, thanks. Now I won't be able to sleep," Seff remarked drily. The last thing he wanted was to have nightmares about Hutts and Colicoids trying to eat each other. _Would a Colicoid really try to eat a Hutt? Is that even possible?_

"Among many cultures in this galaxy," Seff said, desperate to change the subject, "it's considered rude to ask a woman her age."

"I find that bizarre," Andromeda said with a slightly perplexed frown.

"So, you don't mind if I ask you?"

She shook her head. "Fifty three of your standard years."

"Wow," Seff said. "You don't look a day over twenty three."

"That is considered a compliment 'among many cultures in this galaxy', then?" Andromeda asked.

"Yes."

"Thank you."

#

_Turk Brand_

Chief of State Dif Scaur shook his head over what he'd read in the report. The Nephilim had not attacked any of the refugee ships. And he doubted it was just because the Dark Ones didn't consider them a threat. The Galactic Alliance would have to expend more resources to care for the refugees. They required food and water, and many needed medical care. And their ships had to have fuel. The military needed these supplies, too. And according to the report's projections, there wouldn't be enough for both.

"I see," said Natasi Daala's voice. "And it would help the military if there were less refugees to worry about."

"Precisely," Dif Scaur replied. "I know you have resources that I don't know about."

"Oh, you have no idea."

"And I don't want one," Dif countered. "The less I know the better things will be for both of us. I just need you to get the job done."

"Of course, Director."

Scaur frowned at being called a mere Director, but slightly hurt feelings were not important right now.

#

_Minotaur_

"Scaur wants Daala to arrange for some of the refugees to be killed," Mirta Gev told Darth Krayt.

The tattooed man nodded his head. "I begin to admire this man. Concerns of morality often limit one's potential." The dark man turned toward Darth Blight. "I'm putting you in charge of Lecersen's fleet. I'm needed at Bilbringi."

"I will inform the Moff," the Barabel Sith said in his hissing voice.

#

_Turk Brand_: Orbiting Bilbringi

"Kre'fey and Darklighter agree with my assessment that the Nephilim are trying to herd us together," Admiral Bwua'tu said.

"That seems reason…" Luke paused and seemed to stare off into space. The Jedi suddenly stood up. "the tattooed Sith," he said in response to Admiral Bwua'tu's look of concern.

"He's here?"

Luke nodded. "He wants to talk."

#

Luke Skywalker and Corran Horn, with their hands resting on their lightsabers, came out to meet the tattooed man as he descended Ship's boarding ramp. "Master Skywalker," the man said politely. "And who would you be?" he asked, turning toward Corran, who promptly introduced himself.

"I never caught your name?" Luke commented.

"Darth Krayt," the Sith Lord said.

"You wanted to talk," Luke prompted

"Yes. Without my help you will be forced into a retreat when the Nephilim attack," the Sith Lord said without preamble. "And defense alone won't defeat them. You've seen how effective my power can be."

Luke thought back to the reports concerning Lecersen's fleet and Gatterweld's fleet. "You want to coordinate our forces."

Darth Krayt nodded. "Who else can do it?" he asked rhetorically. "You're afraid I'll try to get people killed." The Sith Lord shook his head. "And jeopardize this fragile, temporary alliance I hope we can forge? If we don't cooperate, these Nephilim will destroy us all."

"This is a terrible idea, Luke," Corran whispered.

"I know. But terrible ideas are all we have left. Do you have a better, I mean, less terrible idea?"

Corran's only response was silence.

"We'll do it," Luke said reluctantly.

#

Outer Rim: Geonosis

"I am General Eorzag," C-3PO translated for the quasi-insectoid Geonosian.

"Well, I'll be a Kowakian monkey lizard's uncle," Han commented as Eorzag led the group toward the heart of the massive underground production facility. There appeared to be two types of droids under construction, both with an uncanny resemblance to the destroyer droid.

General Eorzag gestured toward a blue and silver droid much like a droideka. But the legs were much longer, and ended in sharp blades. And the laser cannons were mounted directly on to the shoulders, giving them more maneuverability than would be possible with the arms.

"This is an Executor Droid, or Execeka," C-3PO translated.

The Geonosian tour guide then turned toward a larger droid. Its three legs were vestigial, and each possessed a pair of side by side wheels. And the head had a fourth eye. It also had four arms ending in long, wicked looking blades. What resembled buzz droids without the protective shells were scurrying into open hatches on the droid.

"And this is a Decimator Droid, or Decimeka," Threepio translated. "We would like to offer you a demonstration of our droids' capabilities."

"That would be greatly appreciated," Senator Rehemma responded as the Geonosian general led the group to a sort of arena, in the middle of which stood an Executor droid. Five YVH droids came out of a door behind the Execeka. In a swift motion the Execeka spun around on its three legs, lowering itself a bit as it did so. Two of the YVHs fell down with smoking holes in their chests, as the Executor droid opened fire with its two pairs of shoulder mounted laser cannons.

The Geonosian-Colicoid built droid rose, seeming to almost leap into the air and charged at its remaining three opponents. It easily dodged their fire as it made its way over to the YVHs. The Execeka lifted its right leg as it spun around to its left. The silver colored blade sheared through one of the YVH's necks like a knife through blue butter. The blade then pivoted, reminding Seff of a pickaxe and sheared through the middle of another droid's head. The Executor droid's rear leg then whipped out to bisect the VYH which had managed to get behind it.

Seff's astromech, Chirpy made a low moaning sound after witnessing the spectacle. Andromeda absent mindedly patted the green and white droid's domed head.

Next into the arena was a Decimator droid. The Decimeka took on eight YVHs. Four YVHs fell down, either headless or with a smoking crater in the chest. The remaining four droids were soon viciously reduced to scrap heaps by the Decimator droid's four arms.

"I hope you were impressed by our products," C-3PO translated for General Eorzag.

"Very much so," Leia responded. "My brother Luke Skywalker would have considered them to be worthy opponents."

Senator Sanje Rehemma turned to Seff Hellin. "You have fought against the Nephilim soldiers. Would these droids be a worthy match against them?"

"I believe they would be. Aside from droid fighters and droid gunships, I've never seen such vicious and agile droids."

General Eorzag made a series of clicking sounds. "Shall we discuss terms, then?" Theepio translated.

"Of course," the Falleen Senator responded.

"The little buzz droids are sort of cute," Andromeda commented as the Geonosian General led the group into a sort of office.

"You watch one of them behead a Nephilim and tell me if you still think they're cute." Seff shrugged. "Of course if I saw _you_ behead one, I'd still think _you're _cute. So I guess the same could hold true for the shelled buzz droids."

"That kid really likes her," Han whispered to Leia.

Andromeda turned and glanced at the two. "My species apparently has very acute hearing," she told them cheerfully as the organic members of the group took their seats.

"Your Galactic Alliance has achieved a massive debt," Threepio translated. "As a result your Alliance has produced more credits, thus decreasing the value of the Alliance credit. According to our projections the value of the Alliance credit will continue to decrease to less than half its current value. With this being the case, for our mutual benefit, we would prefer a different form of payment. A barter if you will.

"In exchange for a number of our droids your government will provide us with capital ships, which we would be manning ourselves, to serve as carriers for our fighters and to help defend our production facilities," C-3PO continued for General Eorzag.

Senator Sanje Rehemma nodded. "These terms are acceptable so far. However, I must warn you that an encounter with these Nephilim could very likely necessitate the retreat of these defending fleets."

"We appreciate your concern," C-3PO said. "The majority of our droid production facilities are housed aboard ships. And our planet bound facilities are a well guarded secret."

"That is good to know," Senator Rehemma said. He and General Eorzag then entered into a long discussion on the numbers of droids and ships to be involved in the exchange, and where they would be delivered.

#

Bilbringi

Darth Krayt let the power of the dark side fall upon him as he sat cross-legged within the cockpit of the Sith Meditation Sphere named _Ship_. Star Destroyers and other capital ships began to reposition themselves of the Sith Lord exerted his will upon the Galactic Alliance fleet.

Admiral Bwua'tu could feel a strange pressure on his mind as Darth Krayt guided his actions. Had the Bothan admiral not been informed of the Sith's involvement, he may have thought the pressure was just a mild headache and that it was his subconscious which guided him.

Darth Krayt had spread the Galactic Alliance vessels out, so that they had more room to maneuver. Like all experienced Chess players Admiral Bwua'tu understood the danger of having one's pieces crowded together. Alliance fighters, mostly X-wings, were boiling out of their carriers, mostly Star Destroyers and Bothan Assault cruisers, but some Mon Calamari cruisers. The fighters would remain with their carriers until the enemy fleet arrived. Admiral Bwua'tu again reflected on the irony of fighters using capital ships as shelter. In Chess, the pawns, more or less analogous to fighters, often served to protect the larger more powerful and important pieces.

A great number of civilian vessels were arrayed behind the Alliance fleet. Understandably, the refugees felt much safer around heavily armed military ships. And if, as Darth Krayt had promised, the Alliance fleet managed to hold Bilbringi, then the civilian ships could remain and would not have expend as much fuel.

Great detonations of light announced the Nephilim fleet's arrival from hyperspace. Nephilim carrier ships materialized and immediately began firing on the Galactic Alliance fleet. And as expected, the Dark fleet began to move forward as to trap the Alliance fleet in Bilbringi's gravity well.

The Dark fleet had expected more aggressive and desperate tactics from the Alliance, and thus was behaving accordingly. The carrier ships had also formed a sort of screen to protect their 'queen' when she arrived. Aggressive, yet cautious. Though Darth Krayt wanted the Nephilim gone just as much as the Jedi did, he could not deny that he had a certain respect for the Nephilim. And he even suspected that they were following some sort of distorted version of the Grand Plan. Perhaps their existence was required by the Grand Plan. To help bring about necessary change. And the purpose of individuals such as Darth Krayt was to prevent these Dark Ones from bringing about _too _much of a change.

A gargantuan flash of light and several hundred fighter sized flashes, indicating that at least some of the Razors had been outfitted with hyperdrives, suddenly appeared behind the Nephilims' screen. The queen had arrived. Krayt briefly wondered if he'd made a mistake in sacrificing the Siths' own queen. Abeloth. No. By now she'd have possessed over a thousand clones of Allana Solo, the woman who would hopefully never live to become the Jedi Queen. And while Abeloth's help would have been invaluable against the Nephilim, she would become an even greater threat to the galaxy then those mechanical profanities.

Razors flew out from behind the screen, while the giant saucer fired through gaps that had been formed. These Razors were met by tentacles of Alliance fighters. Enemy fighters became shrapnel as they were over taken by a force with superior coordination.

A number of the Star Destroyers were focusing their fire on the saucer; Krayt suspected and hoped that the saucer would not fire its gamma weapon under heavy enough fire for fear that it could cause a catastrophic overload. Four of these Star Destroyers were headed toward the giant skeletal saucer. Various systems aboard these Star Destroyers had been shut down, either completely are partially, to reinforce the relevant sections of their deflector shields.

#

Allana could feel Darth Krayt's dark presence guiding her as she fired off a pair of proton torpedoes, each of which took out a Razor. And then she was rolling her X-wing to the right. A split second later a gigantic flash of red energy materialized less than a foot to the left, vaping a pair of Razors. A Sith Lord who sought to murder her had just saved her life. Of course he knew that if he allowed Allana to die when he could have saved her that the deal would likely be off. That the Jedi might refuse to work with him.

The battle had a peculiar dream like quality to it. Allana felt as though she weren't completely awake. She wondered how much control Krayt truly had over this fleet. Could the Sith Lord's influence be resisted if he tried something horrible? Allana didn't know if _she_ could. And if _she_ couldn't…

Allana felt almost no emotion from Thrace. It was common for him to do this in battle. It made him less susceptible to the temptation of the dark side. And emotion could be a dangerous distraction in the heat of battle.

And there was another reason Thrace was shutting out his emotions this time. A powerful Sith Lord named Darth Plagueis, who was certainly aligned with Krayt, had been the one who'd forced his father to kill his mother. Thrace had been just a small child at the time. And what he'd seen of the event, even after his father had wiped his memory, had left him traumatized. Thrace couldn't afford to be angry with the dark man right now.

He and Allana went into a series of white knuckle maneuvers as they chased after another Razor. They were forced to split up as the Razor reversed itself. The two Jedi managed to get above and below the enemy fighter and vape it.

Allana felt a sense of relief as Krayt's oppressive, yet empowering darkness was suddenly taken away. That relief suddenly turned to alarm. Why beyond the Ninth Gate had Krayt stopped…

#

Both the Galactic Alliance and the Nephilim fleets were taking losses. Though the Alliance fleet was losing vessels at a slightly higher rate. But as in the game of Chess one sometimes had to allow one's pieces to be taken in order to achieve their endgame. Admiral Bwua'tu was very uncomfortable with how close Darth Krayt had allowed the Nephilim vessels to get to the Alliance fleet. But this, too, was sometimes necessary in Chess. _So what is his endgame? How will he strike?_

Admiral Bwua'tu frowned; that pressure on his mind was gone. Had Krayt just abandoned them?

#

The freighter pilot suddenly knew that everyone aboard her ship was going to die. Every single being was essentially already dead. She could feel the fear building up inside her. And that fear began to give way to anger. What had she ever done to these Dark Ones? Nothing. And yet they wanted her dead.

She looked at the controls. If they were all going to die anyway…

A number of freighters suddenly lurched forward, through the gaps in the Alliance fleet. Some of these vessels managed to crash into a few of the Dark Ships. More refugee ships followed, crashing into more Nephilim carrier ships. This had been Krayt's plan the whole time, to use the refugee ships as missiles.

The Alliance vessels took advantage of the chaos and began to target the damaged Nephilim vessels. The Dark fleet began taking significant losses as it was overwhelmed. The Nephilim carrier ships' engines propelled them backwards, out of Bilbringi's gravity well. They began vanishing, in mighty flashes of light as they retreated to the relative safety of hyperspace. The giant saucer followed suit to escape a quarter of Star Destroyers intent on ramming it. There were hundreds of much smaller bursts of light, indicating the departure of the Razors.

The Force was full of shock and horror over what had just transpired. It had made perfect strategic sense, of course. But that didn't make it right. Darth Krayt had just murdered thousands of people. And so Allana was not at all surprised when she failed to locate the dark man in the Force.


	8. Chapter 8

**Author's note: You may recall a Sith named White Eyes, who appeared briefly in the Legacy of the Force series. I had originally named him Darth Diablo. But I thought it would be more interesting is he was Darth Krayt.**

Outer Rim: Concordia

Space was lit up, almost as though it were a cosmic gas cloud, as the Imperial/Mandalorian fleet exchanged savage salvoes of angry light with the Nephilim fleet. The Dark Fleet, with their superior long-range capabilities, had initiated the battle, launching needles of silver white energy. The Imperial/Mandalorian fleet had responded with red and green laser fire, blue ion bolts, and proton torpedoes trailed by violet fire.

Moff Drikl Lecersen shook his head over the fact that the Nephilim seemed to have such a limited range of weaponry. Aside from the gamma weapon possessed by that enormous saucer of theirs, there was the silver white energy and the ludicrously sharp blades of the Razors and Nephilim soldiers.

Lecersen glanced at the mysterious dark cloaked Sith Lord, a man of shadow in pale armor, who sat nearby. The man's name was Darth Plagueis; he had taken charge of Lecersen's fleet after Darth Krayt had left for Bilbringi.

The Moff shuddered to think what would be happening were the Sith not around. He doubted it would be possible to defeat these Nephilim otherwise. And even with the Sith around…

Lecersen felt a slight, almost imperceptible tugging at his mind as Darth Plagueis gently brought the Moff's attention back to the current battle. The Sith Lord wasn't controlling the fleet so much as he was guiding it, and still relied upon the individuals to think for themselves.

#

After receiving a report from Imperial Intelligence that a Nephilim flotilla was on its way to Concordia Moff Lecersen had led his own fleet there to aid the Mandalorians. As well as being home to a number of production plants producing the tank-like tra'kads and the _Besulike_ fighters used by the Mandalorians, Concordia also produced some of the arms used by the Empire.

The tra'kads, since they lacked the speed necessary to keep up with the Razors, had been tasked with assisting in the defense of Moff Lecersen's Star Destroyers. Boba Fett, who was in one of the tra'kads with his granddaughter Mirta Gev, despised the man. Lecersen had been involved in the creation of a nano-virus which had been designed to target Boba Fett and his relatives. This dreadful virus had been released on his homeworld of Mandalore. _Which means I can never go back home._

However, Boba Fett understood that his people needed the Empire's help. And one of the Sith currently working with the Empire, Vestara Khai had saved Mirta's life on more than one occasion. He owed the Sith girl a massive debt.

#

Darth Plagueis had elected to coordinate Moff Lecersen's fleet this time because, unlike Darth Blight, the Nephilim had not faced him in combat. It would thus require more effort from the Dark Ones to anticipate his strategy. The Sith in the pale armor found it difficult to distinguish between individual Nephilim not-quite-life forces. They were all nearly identical. He was convinced that these Nephilim, extremely intelligent brains, basically, were clones. They also seemed to be connected in a sort of hive mind, meaning they all had one single will. The Nephilim were, in a sense, one single entity.

Darth Plagueis found it disturbingly similar to the connection he currently shared with thousands of Imperial and Mandalorian personnel. He did not, of course, have such a connection with the many Shadow TIEs and tri-fighters he had helped Lecersen acquire.

Darth Plagueis reached out briefly toward Darth Blight, who was coordinating his own forces on the surface of Concordia. A large number of Nephilim drop ships had managed to make it past the Imperial/Mandalorian fleet and to the surface of Concordia. In anticipation of such an event a substantial defense force had been placed on the planet.

#

Surface of Concordia

Endless sonic booms, from the drop ships and fighters from both sides, prompted endless quaking from the ground. Adding to this cacophony were the shrieking of high powered energy weapons and the hammering of Verpine shatterguns with armor-piercing rounds. Darth Blight found comical irony in the fact that projectile weapons, which were quite primitive, were being used against beings with the most advanced technology he'd ever encountered. The alloy pellets weakened the Nephilim warriors' armor, alloying the energy weapons to do massive amounts of damage.

_The szame isz alszo true for lightszabersz_, reflected the Barabel Sith as he plunged his crimson bladed weapon into the pellet shredded chest of a Dark warrior. He suddenly deactivated his lightsaber, angled the weapon upward, and reactivated it so that the red blade of light impaled the bottom of his opponent's head.

Darth Blight then blocked a hail of silver white energy bolts as gravity pulled him back down to Concordia's surface. He rather enjoyed combat. What Barabel didn't like a good hunt?

He felt a similar sense of exhilaration from Vestara, who fought a few meters away. She'd recently been declared a Sith Lord by Darth Plagueis, and had been named Darth Nefaria. Darth Blight doubted he'd ever admit it, but he was quite proud of the girl.

All around them Mandalorians and Imperial foot soldiers fought alongside Execekas and Decimekas against the Dark Ones. Many of the Mandalorians and Imperial soldiers rode upon the Decimator droids, while others ran along behind the vicious machines. None of these people would directly engage the Nephilim soldiers. The non-Force users wouldn't have stood a chance against them.

From the corner of his eye Darth Blight saw one of the Executor droids spin upon its rear leg and swing its right leg up to intercept a Nephilim warrior's blade. The Execeka then blew its opponent's chest apart with its right pair of shoulder mounted laser cannons. A split second later the droid's head exploded in a shower of flame and machinery as another Dark soldier blasted its head apart.

Darth Blight, who generally did not like droids, was quite impressed with the Colicoid/Geonosian-built droids. They were at least a match, perhaps more than a match in the case of the Decimator droids, against the Dark warriors.

Under Darth Blight's guidance the Nephilim ranks were pushed back, away from the Mandalorian production facility they'd tried to besiege.

#

Concordia space

Darth Plagueis had started off in this battle much as Darth Blight would have. The Barabel liked to set bait that he knew a worthy opponent would not go after. This would hold off the opponent, giving Blight time to better position his pieces.

A cluster of Star Destroyers had moved forward toward the Dark fleet, while many of the other Star Destroyers hung back. The Nephilim, of course, would make no attempt to surround this cluster, lest the other Star Destroyers form up around them.

The next move for Darth Blight would involve moving the Star Destroyers which had hung back forward, creating a sort of bowl in which to trap the Dark fleet. And this Nephilim fleet responded as though it were expecting some sort of variation of this tactic by forming a bowl of their own. Blight's vessels would them form a screen. Of course, Plagueis realized that the Nephilim could be playing _him_ as he hoped he was playing _them_.

So Darth Plagueis made what most would have regarded as a completely idiotic move, sending the majority of the Star Destroyers into that bowl. Like some giant parasite the Sith Lord would attempt to destroy the enemy, or host from the inside out. Imperial and Mandalorian fighter craft swarmed about Lecersen's vessels to keep the Razors, which represented hyper-parasites, or parasites of parasites, at bay.

Turbolaser batteries and ion cannons fired as fast as their capacitors could manage without causing a catastrophic overload. Proton torpedoes were also launched at a furious rate. Such intense fire was an utter necessity if the Star Destroyers intended to survive what was analogous to their host's stomach, with all its acids and such.

The Star Destroyers then began to spread out, forcing the Nephilim to break up their bowl formation. The battle concluded soon after that as the Dark fleet was unable to assume an effective formation, and retreated to hyperspace.

Darth Plagueis considered this battle a victory since the enemy had lost a few more ships than the Imperials and Mandalorians. But the man with the piercing white eyes was still concerned. It seemed that the Nephilim had been caught off guard by his unexpected strategy and the Shadow TIEs and Decimekas and Execekas. But the Dark Ones would be expecting all that when they returned. _We'll have to have more surprises for them when they return._

#

_Millennium Falcon_: en route to Bilbringi

"So, since I'm not a Master, Thrace is sort of my unofficial apprentice," Seff said.

Falleen Senator Sanje Rehemma nodded. "When I decided to get into politics I was assigned a mentor, too."

Seff briefly considered making some snide remark about that, but thought better of it. _We already got enough enemies._

For the sake of a brief reprieve from this awkward and guarded conversation he reached out toward Andromeda. The girl-from-the-egg was asleep… Was she? It didn't feel quite… right for sleep. Perhaps Andromeda's people slept… differently? Seff frowned. _That makes no sense._ He gently nudged her in the Force. And as with one who was sleeping, she didn't respond.

Seff suddenly stood up. "I've got to check on something. I'll be right back." But before he left the _Falcon's_ lounge area he turned to C-3PO, who'd been silently standing nearby. "I'm sure you can come up with an interesting topic to keep our guest here from getting bored." As had been discussed earlier, that was code for the protocol droid to keep an eye on the Senator who was a close ally with Dif Scaur.

"Why, of course, Master Hellin," the golden droid responded.

Seff walked over to Andromeda's quarters and gently knocked on the door. "Andy, are you alright?" When he still didn't get a response he placed his hand on the activation panel, compelling the door to silently slide open. Andromeda stood by the far end of the room, writing something on the wall.

Seff saw, as he went to stand beside Andromeda, that it was some sort of computer code. He looked at her face. Her pupils were large, almost filling up her entire eye, as with a playful whisperkit. Seff would have found it adorable had he not been so perplexed as to what she was doing. And if her face had not had the strange blank look on it.

Seff thought about trying to stop her and waking her. But what she was writing seemed important. And if this was the only time she'd ever be able to get it out and he stopped her… Seff did not want to be responsible for dooming the entire galaxy.

Han and Leia, both of whom had been sleeping, walked into the room a few minutes later. Han stifled a yawn.

Leia looked at Andromeda and then, beyond her, at the wall. "How long has she been doing… that?" she asked.

"Um, let me see," Seff said. "I've been here about thirteen minutes," he said, mostly to himself. "And she's written that much in that amount of time." He was silent a moment. "Wow. I'd say about three and a half hours."

"Celestials must've sent her here to give us that," Han stated, pointing to the wall. "Looks pretty darn advanced." Even if Andromeda was as powerful as a Jedi Master, with her staff, he doubted she'd be able to significantly turn the tide against the Dark Ones. A powerful computer virus, on the other hand…

"We can take a picture and put it on a non-networked datapad for Ghent to look at," Seff suggested. The fact that Andromeda had written it on the wall where it would certainly be seen, which may have been the whole point, was a good sign. But it still didn't hurt to be cautious.

"I'll tell the Senator," Leia said. She left and returned momentarily with Senator Rehemma.

Almost an hour later Andromeda stopped writing on the wall. She shook her head as though to clear it. She looked at the wall and then at the pen in her hand.

"You're such a good code writer that you can do it in your sleep," Seff remarked, not quite sure how to respond. Andromeda laughed awkwardly as she turned toward him. Without really thinking about it Seff hugged her.

#

_Turk Brand_

"As per your instructions I told the Solos and their guests that Moff Gatterweld owed us some favors and would therefore be willing to provide the Geonosians with the Star Destroyers," Falleen Senator Sanje Rehemma told Chief of State Dif Scaur.

Dif Scaur nodded his head in approval. The appearance of the _Turk Brand_ a few days prior had already aroused the suspicions of his enemies in the Alliance. If they found out he had whole fleets of Star Destroyers that he hadn't told them about… "Some of my slicers will alter the Star Destroyers' transponder codes so that they appear Imperial. We'll then send those ships to the Bastion shipyards and from there they will go to the Geonosians."

"I like the way you think," Senator Rehemma said. "There was one other matter I wished to discuss with you. On our return trip from Geonosis Andromeda began writing some sort of computer code on one of the walls of her quarters. It looked like some sort of computer virus."

"Against the Nephilim?" Scaur asked.

"That would make sense," the Senator said. "If it had been against us, she wouldn't have written it on the wall like she had. And if our network had gotten infected it could be a while before we actually found out. Jedi Knight Hellin believes the virus would be able to disguise itself as something completely benign."

"So what's to say the Nephilim haven't done that to us already?"

"Nothing, sir," the Senator responded.

#

_Kuati Dagger_

Gavin Darklighter checked the security display. A young Duros officer stood in the hallway. The admiral recognized him as Ensign Onata. He pressed the activation pad and the door slid open. Onata didn't look happy as he walked through the doorway.

"_Hawkbat Starbeam_?" Gavin asked.

Ensign Onata sighed, and Gavin felt the weight of a thousand Star Destroyers upon his shoulders. "Gone, sir. I'm so sorry, sir."

Gavin might as well have been stabbed in the chest with a vibro-blade. "Not your fault," he said. The young Duros man just stood there, uncomfortably, for what seemed like an eternity. "You can go," Gavin said, his voice starting to crack.

Gavin just stood there a few moments, in shock, after Ensign Onata left. His wife and two daughters had been aboard the freighter _Hawkbat Starbeam_. He'd wanted to have them aboard the _Kuati Dagger_, but the Nephilim had been ignoring the refugee ships. Gavin thought they'd be safer on a ship that wasn't a target. _I killed them!_

No, he'd acted rationally. It was Krayt who had killed… no, murdered them.

He leaned his back against the wall and sank to the floor. His tears felt like hot razor blades ripping down his face.

#

General Hiroyuki Niathal sat down beside Gavin. "I can't express how sorry I am about what happened," the Mon Calamari told his friend. He remembered how devastated he'd been when he'd learned that his Aunt Cha had committed suicide. Hiroyuki couldn't imagine how Gavin had to be feeling, having lost almost his whole family.

"Thanks," Gavin mumbled, and took another swig of his caf.

"Have you talked to Sebastian?" Hiroyuki asked.

Gavin shook his head. "He's gone dark. My son probably doesn't even know what happened." The admiral brought his attention back to the holovision as another rerun of _MedStar_ began. It was a comedy-drama about surgeons during the Clone Wars. It could be rather grim at times, and in that sense seemed like an odd viewing choice for someone who'd lost almost their whole immediately family in one day. But, on the other hand the humor was brilliant. It was real comedy, not that raunchy, vulgar mynock guano that was so popular these days.

One of the characters Adok Farlopp, a Duros man, sat in chair beside an unconscious clone soldier on a hospital bed. "I operated on your brother just a few hours ago. In fact, I've operated on one of your brothers every day for… well, far too bloody long."

"I'm not fit to be an admiral right now," Gavin said at the start of the next commercial break. "I can't trust myself to…" He took another sip of caf. "I'd like to promote you to the rank of admiral."

Hiroyuki Niathal remained silent a minute. "Would you be willing to act as my advisor?"

"Sure," Gavin said with a nod. "I can make tactical suggestions and I can help draw up battle plans. And if any of my decisions seemed emotionally compromised…"

"I shall keep in mind that they are suggestions."

#

_Turk Brand_

Thrace frowned at the holographic representation of the galaxy floating above the center of the table. In less than a month the Nephilim had taken almost as much territory as the Yuuzhan Vong had in two years. Of course, unlike the extragalactic invaders, these Dark Ones and their ships had already been mobilized. Looking at the big picture it was clear that the Nephilim were vastly more intelligent than the galaxy's most brilliant military leaders.

Moff Gatterweld and the Hapes Consortium were slowly losing territory, but were still holding on somehow. Moff Lecersen had recently lost Adumar, when he'd taken his fleet to Concordia. And Formbi's fleet had been forced even further into the unknown regions. Without the sensor upgrades the Chiss had made shortly after this Nephilim crisis had begun Thrace was certain Formbi's fleet would have been completely destroyed days ago.

And worst of all, for Thrace, Chaf'orm'bintrano was his maternal grandfather. Thrace had met Formbi briefly, the year before. With both his biological parents having died, he didn't want to lose anymore family members.

"The Nephilim know that we cannot lose the Corellian system, not when we're worried they'll try to use the planetary repulsor weapons for something," Admiral Bwua'tu went on. "They'll expect us to send a massive fleet there. I imagine they're planning an ambush which could potentially wipe out this entire fleet. So the Dark Ones would still get the Corellian system. We will remain at Kuat for now and go from there. Diktat Tarkin is, of course, not happy about this, but has agreed to remain in sensor range of the system to collect data on the Nephilim fleet. Hopefully, if they have more nasty surprises for us they'll show their hand there."

#

"Got room for a Made Jedi?" Ziggy asked as he walked over to the table where Yaqueel sat with two humans.

"Sure," said the male human, who introduced himself as Valin Horn. The other human was his sister,

Jysella.

"Hi," Ziggy said, a bit awkwardly, as he sat down beside Yaqueel.

Jysella raised an eyebrow and looked at Yaqueel. "I think somebody has a crushypoo," she teased.

The Bothan Jedi rolled her eyes and then looked over at Ziggy. "Uh. You are pretty cute," he said.

Valin turned toward his sister. "I do believe you are right."

Ziggy frowned. "I wouldn't have sat here if I knew I was going to be verbally abused. Is this some kind of initiation?"

"Oh drat," Valin told Jysella. "He's on to us."

#

Corellian system

As instructed, a portion of Diktat Tarkin's fleet waited at the edge of the Corellian system, where they could take sensor readings of the Nephilim vessels and then easily escape to hyperspace.

Victor Tarkin looked through one of the forward viewports of the _Firebrand_, in the direction of the system's primary, about which orbited five planets, and shook his head. A massive convoy of freighters on its way to evacuate the planets had been found decimated. Which didn't surprise him after that stunt at Bilbringi. Now the Nephilim perceived civilian vessels as threats and treated them as such.

Having less refugees to worry about would certainly help the war effort, which was why the current Diktat of the Corellian system was not having thousands of refugees put on his vessels. Victor Tarkin had given a speech the day before saying that in light of the events at Bilbringi and the destruction of that unfortunate convoy the masses would actually be safer if they remained planet bound. And as long as the Dark Ones didn't see these people as threats they'd be left alone. _I certainly hope it's not all a pile of rubbish._

A great multitude of monstrous stars were suddenly given birth, and just as suddenly given death, as the Nephilim vessels exchanged the mottled gray abyss of hyperspace for the glittering black abyss of realspace.

"We've got_ two_ saucers," the chief sensor officer reported, her voice wavering slightly. "And we can't go into hyper-"

"Interdictors?" Tarkin interrupted.

"The saucers," the officer said with a nod. "Wait. Both saucers have one of those seed things behind them. I think the saucers need the seeds to… interdict."

The six nearest Star Destroyers took protective positions around the _Firebrand_, and all seven vessels then proceeded to move out of the interdiction cone. The other Star Destroyers commenced fire on the saucer which, with the assistance of one of the Nephilim carrier ships, had initiated the interdiction cone.

A number of the seed shaped carrier ships followed behind the _Firebrand_ and her escorts. Explosions began erupting against the trailing Star Destroyer's deflector shield, as the Dark ships opened fire on the closest target. While this was, of course, the obvious move it was also the most logical.

The detachment of Nephilim vessels was slowed down slightly when it entered the weapons range of Tarkin's Star Destroyers. The trailing Star Destroyer continued to sustain damage as it and five other Star Destroyers continued to guide the _Firebrand _out of the interdiction field.

"That other saucer just entered hyperspace," the chief sensor officer noted nervously.

Tarkin glanced at one of the sensor displays. The _Firebrand _and her escorts were still trapped in that blasted interdiction cone. If that other saucer dropped out of hyperspace before… There'd have to be another Nephilim carrier ship… Of course there'd be one.

The Corellian Diktat turned to his chief tactical officer. "We figure out where this saucer goes and prepare ships to ram it," the thin man suggested.

"Do it." The saucer would then either have to move out of the way, thus disrupting the interdiction cone. Or it would have to open fire to destroy its attackers; in which case the saucer would likely lack the power to complete the interdiction cone.

That second saucer reappeared. Exactly where expected. "They got us again," complained the chief sensor officer.

As five Star Destroyers lumbered full speed toward this other saucer, the one which had originally trapped Tarkin's fleet suddenly vanished into hyperspace.

Sweat began to roll down Tarkin's forehead as the interdiction field suddenly dissipated. Only to be replaced by a mighty hail of silver white needles. The saucer moved upward in relation to the five Star Destroyers attempting to ram it, to expose the seed ships behind it. The five unfortunate Star Destroyers began sustaining severe damage. The sight quickly became obscured as the stars elongated into lines, and then congealed into the mottled gray background of hyperspace.


	9. Chapter 9

_Turk Brand_: orbiting Bilbringi

Andromeda expertly whipped the X-wing around, orienting itself toward the cockpit of on Seff's X-wing, and launched a pair of proton torpedoes. The cockpit of Seff's simulator suddenly went dark, meaning that Andromeda had beaten him yet again. He opened the cockpit and jumped out.

"If I didn't know better," Seff said, "I'd think you'd been flying X-wings your whole life."

"Who's to say I haven't?" Andromeda asked. She pulled up her pant leg some, revealing the crystal strapped to her lower leg. This simple contraption had kept the weapon in contact with her, allowing her to use the Force while using the simulator. Andromeda pulled the crystal out of its holster.

"You want to beat me up again, don't you," Seff remarked.

"Of course, but I promise not to kill you." She gave the crystal a gentle squeeze, prompting it to grow and elongate into a double ended spear.

"Because then you wouldn't be able to beat me up anymore," Seff said, gesturing toward Thrace's double bladed lightsaber. A shaft of golden fire materialized on both ends of the weapon as it landed in his right hand.

Andromeda immediately began gaining ground on Seff as the match began. Seff soon found himself struggling to block her blows. And it certainly didn't help that he had to watch out for the poisonous stinger on the end of her tail.

According to Cilghal, Andromeda's stinger could either poison people directly or inject a poisonous barb. The first method would likely kill most species within five minutes, giving an assassin of Andromeda's species plenty of time to slip away. No evidence would be left behind due to the rapid decay rate of the venom molecules; it would likely look as though the victim had suffered a heart attack.

The poisonous barb, on the other hand, would likely kill within a second as it contained a powerful neurotoxin. But it would leave obvious evidence of what had happened. Andromeda had possessed ten of these barbs, and had given one to Cilghal to examine, as well as a sample of her venom.

Seff brought Thrace's saberstaff up to block a slash from Andromeda's staff. The leading end of the staff suddenly shrunk down, bypassing the lightsaber blade. The staff then re-elongated until the spear tip was less than an inch from Seff's throat.

"Lost to a girl again?" Yantahar asked Seff as he and Tahiri suddenly walked into the training room.

"She's cute," Seff said. "So I don't mind." He looked at the two other Jedi and then at Andromeda.

Andromeda smiled at him.

"All three of us?" Seff asked.

"Why not?"

"Our class doesn't come in for another…" Tahiri glanced at her chrono… "fourteen minutes."

"Then she can beat us twice," Seff said with a slight laugh.

"We'll see about that," Yantahar said as he and the other two Jedi activated their lightsabers. The blades had barely burned to life before Andromeda was savagely swinging her weapon at them.

"Watch the tail," Seff warned.

Sparks began erupting as Andromeda's staff clashed with the Jedis' lightsabers. The three Jedi were slowly gaining ground on her. Seff strongly suspected that Andromeda was allowing her opponents to gain this ground. Through his Force meld with Tahiri and Yantahar, he shared this suspicion. Of course, there was little they could do about this, since gaining ground on her was their only hope of beating her.

Andromeda suddenly raised her hand at Tahiri, knocking her onto the floor a few meters away. She then swung her staff at Seff's chest. That end of the staff shortened just before it could slam into, and most likely shatter, his sternum. Multiple bone fragments would have then punctured his heart and lungs, quickly killing him. Seff sighed and took a seat on one of the benches, allowing Yantahar to summon the saberstaff from him, as Tahiri was rolling to her feet.

As with most Jedi, Yantahar fought better with one weapon. But if he didn't take the saberstaff, then Andromeda would.

Andromeda rapidly gained ground on Yantahar and Tahiri as she battered down their defenses. Using her staff to keep Tahiri's lightsaber occupied, Andromeda lashed her tail out. Not desiring to be put out of the match by a harmless tap from Andromeda's stinger, Tahiri was forced to leap out of the way.

Andromeda took that opportunity to swing her staff at Yantahar's neck. And again the staff shortened before it could kill him. Seff was convinced that the weapon would have taken the Bothan Jedi's head off. Andromeda took Thrace's saberstaff as Yantahar took a seat next to Seff.

Tahiri summoned Yantahar's lightsaber to her free hand as she came charging at Andromeda. The battle continued a bit longer as both women tried to pretend to kill the other. All the while, Tahiri did her best to avoid Andromeda's poisonous tail.

With every second Tahiri was becoming more exhausted. If she was going to defeat Andromeda, she had to do it now. So she swung her lightsaber toward Andromeda's staff, but at the last moment it shrunk down. Tahiri managed to stop the spin resulting from the momentum she's gathered. But a tap against her calf told her it was too late. Tahiri stood there with sweat dripping down her face as she deactivated her lightsaber.

"Good job," Tahiri told Andromeda as they shook hands.

"I was already a little tired from the first battle," Seff piped in.

Tahiri scowled at him. She looked back at Andromeda. "How'd you like to help teach our class," she said, gesturing to Yantahar."

#

"Master Skywalker," Chief of State Dif Scaur said as Luke entered his office.

"Chief of State Scaur," the Jedi Master responded. "Thank you for seeing me." The two didn't shake hands as neither preferred to do so with the other.

"Of course. What can I do for you?"

"It's about Moff Gatterweld," Luke said as took a seat on the other side of Scaur's desk. The Chief of State seemed to suppress a sigh. During the brief silence that followed Luke continued to try to read him in the Force. Something just didn't feel right. It was somehow familiar, but he just couldn't place it.

"The circumstances of his election were a bit suspicious, for one thing," Luke began. "Chief of State Brand and Moff's Reige and Gettelles were all assassinated around then. And Moff Gatterweld's forces managed to end that Hapan civil war rather quickly. His forces are also doing remarkably well against the Nephilim," Luke said.

"And your point being?" Scaur prompted.

"Has he told you how his forces have managed to be so successful?"

"He has been a little vague," Scaur allowed.

"I imagine he wants the Nephilim gone as much as we do. So why isn't he telling you more about his strategy?"

"You think he doesn't want us to know?" Scaur asked.

"That's the best I can come up with."

"And why would he not want us to know?"

Luke remained silent a minute, and finally decided not to voice his and the other Jedis' concern that Gatterweld might be working with Plagueis or another Sith. Dif Scaur would certainly apprise the Moff of his conversion with Luke. And if Gatterweld truly was working with a Sith and he found out the Jedi knew… Things would get quite a bit uglier. "That remains to be seen," Luke said instead. "I think you should just keep an eye on him. It never hurts to be cautious."

"We can agree on that. Is there anything else?"

"No," Luke said, resisting the urge to jump out of the chair and run out of Scaur's office. He did not want Scaur to know just how concerned he really was. So Luke forced himself to appear calm as he left the Chief of State's office.

#

"How'd things go with Dif?" Ben asked as his father entered the lounge area of the _Millennium Falcon_.

"He's far too trusting of Gatterweld," Luke said, somewhat perplexed.

"Scaur, too trusting?" Han said with a frown. _Didn't think the man was capable of that._ "Maybe somebody replaced him with a clone when we weren't lookin'."

"It was more than that, wasn't it," Leia said, ignoring her husband's comment.

"My concerns didn't even seem to register to him," Luke said. "There was something… _off_ about him. I've felt it before, but I can't seem to place it."

"I take it you didn't mention anything about Plagueis, then," Ben said.

Luke shook his head. "Scaur would have told Gatterweld. If we're right about this, then Gatterweld can't know we know. And if we're wrong, Scaur's bound to use it against us."

"If Scaur tells Gatterweld everything, then the Moff must know that Lecersen's working with Plagueis," Ben said. "So if Gatterweld's working with Plagueis, then maybe he's working with Lecersen, too."

"Then he's been lying about being a moderate all this time," Leia said. "And we can't bring it to Scaur."

"And if we're right about all this and Scaur finds out we've been withholding the truth, we're also gonna be in trouble," Han said.

#

_Void Demon_

"Chief of State Scaur," Zedekiah Gatterweld greeted Dif Scaur's hologram.

Dif Scaur greeted the Moff and then briefed the man on his conversation with Luke Skywalker.

"Lecersen and Plagueis were behind the assassinations," Moff Gatterweld stated in disgust. "And my fleet, which is quite sizable, is working with multiple Hapan fleets. So, of course we're holding out well against the Nephilim."

Dif Scaur nodded. "Skywalker knows all this."

"But he doesn't trust me because I'm an Imperial. A Moff, no less. I've absolutely got to be up to something diabolical." Zedekiah Gatterweld gave a brief laugh of disgust. "I'm a moderate, for Core's sake. The Jedi ought to count me as a friend, especially since I'm an enemy of Lecersen. I've been keeping that nutter's daft activities in check. The Jedi clearly do not trust me and that concerns me. What if they try to do something?"

"After Chief of State Brand's assassination I doubt the Jedi would risk soiling their reputation in such a way." The murder of Scaur's predecessor had been committed by a clone of Allana Solo. For a short time Scaur had believed that Allana Solo had killed him. "And I do not see how it would benefit the Jedi."

"Things change," Gatterweld warned. "What's inconvenient one day may not be the next."

Scaur nodded. "My assessment could be wrong," he admitted. "So I will step up my surveillance of the Jedi."

"Thank you, sir," the Moff said. "I appreciate it."

"You should also know that we may have found a way to defeat the Nephilim," Scaur said. "Andromeda was found writing down the code of what appears to be a very advanced computer virus. The fact that she was asleep while writing the code suggests that it was buried deep within her subconscious."

Moff Gatterweld nodded. "That would make it harder for the information to be tortured out of her. Do you know yet how you are going to infect the Nephilim with this virus?"

"No, but I have people working on it."

"If Andromeda was in fact sent by the Celestials then perhaps this virus could be dispersed by something they created," Gatterweld suggested.

"The Corellian repulsors. One of them was activated a few decades ago. If the Celestials did want us to shut the Dark Ones, they'd certainly make sure we'd be able to figure it out."

"I agree," Zedekiah said. "And perhaps Andromeda could offer insight as to how to do this. It could be 'buried deep within her subconscious' and waiting for the proper triggers."

Scaur sighed. "We'd have to get into the Corellian system first."

"I'm too preoccupied defending the Hapes Consortium, but I'm sure Lecersen would be willing to help."

"I hate the man," Scaur admitted. "But the Nephilim are his enemy, too."

#

_Minotaur _

"Daala just spoke with Scaur," Mirta Gev's hologram said. "Scaur wants the Mandalorians prepared to make a move on the Jedi. And he also wants to know if we or someone we know could get him some enhanced surveillance equipment."

Moff Lecersen glanced briefly at the cloaked form of Darth Plagueis, who stood off to the side, unseen by Mirta. The Sith Lord nodded. And then shook his head. "I can provide the equipment," the Moff said. He did not mention that Moff Gatterweld would be involved, though. It would not be good for the wrong people to know of the two Moffs' connection.

#

Nam Chorios

Zedekiah Gatterweld climbed out of his TIE Avenger. He took the crystal from his pocket and focused on it briefly. The crystal rapidly morphed into an ax-spear and the Moff pointed it toward the ground. He began to draw on the Force and was drawn to a seemingly random spot of dry and barren ground.

Moff Gatterweld sent a small spark of blue energy from the spear tip to the ground. Small azure flames began to dance upon a manhole sized circular section of ground. This threw a cloud of dust into the air. Zedekiah waited a few seconds for some of the dust settle and then approached an alloy circle. The circle irised open, revealing a hole with a ladder.

Zedekiah Gatterweld loosened his grip on his weapon slightly, and it shrunk down to its previous form. He placed it back in his pocket and climbed down the ladder. Light appeared in the vertical tunnel as the circular door irised closed. Upon reaching the floor the Moff walked through a series of corridors which led to a large dome shaped room. Aside from the six equally spaced doorways, the perimeter of the room was lined with consoles.

In the center of the room stood a sort of pedestal on which rested a large, diamond-like crystal. Moff Gatterweld walked over to the pedestal and then pressed a series of buttons set into it like gems. The large crystal began humming, and pulsing with light. And various monitor lights burned to life on the consoles.

A brownish skinned face, with sharp features and a very subtle purple hue suddenly appeared above one of the consoles. This face was very close to human, but there were some subtle differences. The ears were slightly pointed, as Zedekiah's had once been, before they'd been surgically altered. The eyes were also different. The pupils were vertical slits, and the irises were a vivid lime-green with indigo specks.

Zedekiah quickly walked over to the terminal. "Hello, Phaeton," he said.

"Welcome back, Zeus," the dark skinned man replied. "Your report?"

Zedekiah pulled out a small diamond-like crystal and inserted it into a port on the pedestal. He pressed a series of buttons, and the small crystal lit up as though it contained a miniature lightning storm. "The Dark Ones have been successfully reactivated. I provided funding for research into the possible applications of dark matter. I knew it would only be a matter of time before the scientific community sent a ship to investigate a dark matter cloud."

Phaeton nodded in approval. "And you put the activation code into that ship's computer."

Gatterweld nodded, and was suddenly aware of the powerful presence of Darth Plagueis. The Moff had requested a meeting with the Sith Lord on Nam Chorios.

"Very clever. And what of the package?"

"The current Galactic Alliance Chief of State Dif Scaur has informed me that his government is in possession of it," Zedekiah said.

"The same man who heads their intelligence network?"

"Yes. He shares a great deal of information with me. He trusts me because he believes I am an enemy of Moff Lecersen." The storm of light within the small crystal suddenly dissipated. "My report has been transmitted. I should return to my duties." Zedekiah's report included nothing regarding Darth Plagueis. Perhaps the Sith Lord would not want Phaeton to know about him. And Gatterweld was not sure how Phaeton would take the news, either.

"By all means, do so."

"Send my regards to Kronos," Zedekiah said.

"Of course." A split second later the connection had terminated.

#

"You've been quite busy," Darth Plagueis commented as he watched Zedekiah climb out of the artificial hole in the ground.

"I wished to speak to you regarding that," the Moff replied. "My true name is Zeus. And for almost two years now, I have been in contact with another of my kind named Phaeton. His ship is part of an enormous armada, which is on standby to enter this galaxy at my command."

"And they've not been employed against the Nephilim," Plagueis said, allowing his curiosity to bleed into the Force.

"I do not believe they will be necessary to defeat the Nephilim," Gatterweld replied.

"You have an alternate method for defeating them, then."

The Moff nodded. "You know of Andromeda. The information for a powerful computer virus was downloaded into her brain. Scaur has recently informed me that the virus' code is being studied by a team of slicers under the current employ of the Alliance. At the very least it should severely hamper the Dark Ones' communication and coordination abilities."

Plagueis nodded. "And at most?"

"Though we mustn't count on it, the virus could potentially deactivate the Nephilim completely, as well as their automated defense systems."

"It would still be prudent to plan for this eventuality. From where do you intend to upload this virus?"

"One of the planetary repulsors of the Corellian system," Gatterweld replied.

"Lecersen's fleet is not too terribly far from there," Plagueis said. "He could provide support."

"I doubt the Alliance would want one of the Sith with him to coordinate their forces, not after what Krayt did," Gatterweld said.

"They may not have to. My former apprentice Thorden could coordinate forces. His son Thrace likely shares this ability. While I was at Bilbringi I felt a powerful Force bond between him and the Jedi Queen. Her father could also coordinate forces. So it is likely that these two Jedi will try to coordinate the Alliance fleet together." Plagueis was silent a moment. 'We may be able to use this to deliver a fatal blow to the Jedi."

"How so?"

"If the Nephilim are completely deactivated, Darth Blight can put his full focus into sickening the Alliance's Force sensitive pilots. While Darth Krayt could coordinate Lecersen's forces against the Alliance fleet."

"There are a great many such pilots thanks to Midichlore," Gatterweld commented. "Strange that the ability to use the Force could turn out to be a weakness."

"Indeed," Plagueis said. "And I find it strange that you are so knowledgeable about these Dark Ones."

"I am responsible for their reactivation," Zedekiah confessed.

"Interesting," Plagueis mused. If the Sith Lord was angry, it could not be sensed in the Force. "The Alliance does seem to be taking the brunt of this."

"That was my hope," Moff Gatterweld said. "It has also strengthened my alliance with the Hapes Consortium."

"It appears that you have made the right decision. I believe that the Grand Plan necessitated that the Dark Ones be reactivated."

"How much of a role do you see Lecersen playing in this Grand Plan?" Gatterweld asked.

"I have not yet determined that. Have you?"

"Perhaps. Have you considered… eliminating him?"

"I have," Plagueis admitted.

"At some point in the future I could lead a strike against Lecersen," Zedekiah told Plagueis. "I doubt he'd see it coming, and the Alliance would be very grateful."

Darth Plagueis' mind began to swirl with the many possibilities. "I appreciate everything you have told me, and I believe it's only fair to tell you a few things."

#

Bilbringi

Great starbursts of light announced the departure of Victor Tarkin's fleet from hyperspace. The Corellian Diktat checked the sensors, and shook his head in disgust. Nine of his ships had been lost, while the Dark Ones had lost none. The Star Destroyer that had been behind the _Firebrand_ was gone, having obviously sustained too much damage to enter hyperspace. The Star Destroyers that had been to the upper and lower right were also gone. Tarkin suspected the first saucer to create an interdiction cone had dropped out of hyperspace before those Star Destroyers could enter.

The Galactic Alliance had refused to send any of their ships to help defend the Corellian system because they'd been afraid, and rightfully so, that the Nephilim had had an ambush planned. That was forgivable. The galaxy could not afford to just throw ships, and brilliant admirals for that matter.

_But then the Alliance had had the gall to tell me to keep my fleet there, on the pretext of learning more about the enemy._ And he'd lost nine ships. Of course Victor knew he was partly to blame for being foolish enough to agree to it. The Alliance must have known that something like this could happen.

Learn about the enemy while getting rid of another enemy.

#

_Turk Brand_

"She says her name is Savannah Eddlebrook. I looked her up; everything checks out. She would like to speak with you regarding conditions inside the refugee ships."

"Send her in," Scaur told the security officer. A couple minutes later a tall, dark skinned human woman walked into his office. She was quite a looker, Dif thought to himself.

"Chief of State Scaur," said the woman. "My name is Savannah Eddlebrook ."

Dif Scaur glanced quickly at Savannah's hands, saw no sort of ring or jewelry, and then at her neck which had no necklace around it, and assumed she wasn't married. "What may I do for you, Ms. Eddlebrook?"

The reporter pulled out a small cylindrical device and placed it on the Chief of State's desk. She smiled and pressed a button.

"I see. And it would help the military if there were less refugees to worry about," said the voice of Natasi Daala.

"Precisely. I know you have resources that I don't know about," replied Dif Scaur's voice.

"Oh, you have no idea."

"And I don't want one. The less I know the better things will be for both of us. I just need you to get the job done."

"Of course, Director."

Scaur could feel his blood pressure space-rocket. Daala, that dianoga, must have recorded the conversation and decided to use it for blackmail. That could be construed as treason.

And it certainly didn't help that Darth Plagueis was involved. It would be suggested that Dif Scaur was working with the same Sith Lord Moff Lecersen was working with. A prosecutor would likely go further to suggest that Scaur was working with the Moff. A second charge of treason.

Scaur would be put on trial for war crimes and two counts of treason. He'd get the pill for sure.

"I'd like to thank you for bringing this to my attention," Scaur said as calmly as he could manage. "You must need me, or I'd be hearing about this on the news."

"Very good," Savannah said with a smile. "You are a powerful man, Mr. Scaur, and you will use that power to help us accomplish certain goals."

Scaur sighed. "May I ask what these goals are?"

"Let's just say that what we will be asking of you is for the good of the galaxy. If a corrupt murderer such as yourself can arrange for the murder of thousands of refugees, I doubt you'll have many qualms about what we will ask of you."

Savannah stood up to leave, but then turned back to Scaur. "And don't try to dig up dirt on us to attempt to use as blackmail. I'm sure you can imagine what would happen if we caught you doing that."

"Of course," Scaur said. "How will you be contacting me?"

"We will worry about that. You have enough to contend with as it is."

After Savannah had left, Scaur poured himself a glass of Corellian whiskey. As he drank it a strange feeling of peace came over him. _I just have to do what they tell me, and everything will be fine._


	10. Chapter 10

**Author's note: One of the planetary repulsors was used in the Corellian trilogy. I do not recall which, but for now I am assuming it's Selonia. If you know otherwise, let me know.**

_Turk Brand_: en route to the Corellian system

"You'll have to spar with Luke one of these days," Seff told Andromeda as the two walked toward Allana's X-wing. "I bet you'd give him a run for his credits."

"It sounds like fun," Andromeda replied, smiling mischievously.

Seff nodded. "Just don't beat him up to bad."

"Oh, alright. I shall just render him unconscious, then." She looked over at the X-wing.

Seff gently took her arm. "Before you go…" Seff put his arms Andromeda and kissed her on the cheek. She was slightly surprised, but not unpleasantly so. "For good luck."

"I appreciate it," Andromeda said. "We ought to get to the X-wings, now," she added, after letting Seff hold her for a few seconds.

"Good idea," Seff said, letting her go. "May the Force be with you."

"And may the Force be with _you_."

Seff jogged over to his X-wing. _She's almost too cute, sometimes. _

Andromeda took some time to reflect on things as she sat in Allana's X-wing, waiting for the _Turk Brand_ to leave hyperspace. The Jedi had understandably been wary of her at first. They hadn't known exactly why she was here. And neither had she, for that matter. But still, they had soon come to love and respect her. And had counted her as one of their own.

One of them was even in love with her. And though she recalled virtually nothing of her former life, Andromeda knew that no one had ever cared for her as Seff did.

But what if one day she remembered the person she had been? Would it change her? Would Seff still love her? Would she still want him to love her?

#

Allana and Thrace sat together in a wookiee sized chair, holding hands to ensure they'd be able to coordinate the Alliance fleet as one. Their eyes were partially closed, and they looked as though they could pass out at any moment. Their two Force presences seemed to melt together until Cilghal and Tekli, who would remain nearby to provide any necessary medical attention, could feel only one Force presence between them.

Two years ago Allana had been captured by Trade Federation ships indirectly under the control of Abeloth. Thrace had been part of the team sent to rescue her. Her body had been failing when the Chiss Jedi had gotten to her. And so Thrace had used a Force meld to link her vital organs to his. And that Force meld had inadvertently developed into a Force bond.

#

Corellian system: Selonia

The massive Galactic Alliance fleet-led by admirals Bwua'tu, Kre'fey, and Niathal, and Dikatat Tarkin-materialized some distance from Selonia, having allowed the target world's gravity well to pull them out of transit. Only a few Nephilim carrier ships patrolled the immediate area. A sensor sweep revealed other patrol parties at the other planets. The majority of the fleet had to be waiting nearby, just out of sensor range of the Alliance fleet.

The Dark Ones were likely prepared for some sort of cyber attack, or at least an attempt at one, since it was the one thing that could seriously jeopardize their plans. The Nephilim must have been concerned that if they had stationed their fleet at Selonia, the Alliance might try to upload a virus from one of the other planets.

Knowing they'd soon be overrun by Dark ships, the Star Destroyers, Mon Calamair cruisers, and Bothan assault cruisers of the Alliance fleet silently hurtled toward Selonia. Hundreds of fighters poured out of the capital ships, in preparation for the swarms of Razors which would be coming their way.

Space was suddenly filled with bright eruptions of light that instantaneously darkened into shadowy phantoms. The Alliance vessels immediately opened up with psychedelic barrages of light, causing the Dark ships' deflector shields to ripple nonchalantly, as though they were unconcerned. The Nephilim then responded with their comparatively bland complement of silvery light, causing their enemy's deflector shields to pulsate with color as though they were firefacet gems.

One of the enormous Nephilim saucers announced its arrival with an immense flare of light, as close to Selonia as one of its moons, had the planet owned any. Its twin would likely delay its arrival, until the worst possible moment for the Alliance fleet.

#

Allana and Thrace, or Thraesana as Ben had decided to call them, sent several Star Destroyers to engage the saucer. Silver-white energy 'descended' from the massive Nephilim ship like hail from a storm cloud. Only this hail was made of fire, not ice.

"Now," Allana and Thrace muttered as one.

Five Star Destroyers suddenly dropped out of hyperspace on the far side of the saucer. The saucer was forced to lessen the rate of fire from its main side to deal with these new assailants. The Galactic Alliance vessels began inflicting damage even as their hull plating was blasted away and the circular titan began to devour them. And as though the poor Star Destroyers weren't in enough peril already, several Nephilim carrier ships came to the saucer's aid.

The Star Destroyers fought on even as they began to disintegrate, as though by acid, until there was only one left. This vessel had remained relatively intact since it had remained behind the others.

Panels on the central spherical section of the Nephilim saucer slid away, allowing a multi-segmented needle to telescope outward. Death soundlessly screamed outward toward the remaining Star Destroy, to quench all life aboard. The saucer continued firing until the Star Destroyer's forward momentum was killed.

Thraesana had just ordered tens of thousands of people to their deaths and they hated themselves for it. But the moment they stopped tens of thousands more people would die. And Allana and Thrace would still hate themselves.

The two Jedi Knights sent several more Star Destroyers against the saucer.

#

The Alliance fleet fought, seemingly in vain, against the net the Dark Ones had created around them. The net that was shrinking like a slowly deflating balloon. But then, several Star Destroyers seemed to recklessly plunge into the 'walls' of this net, away from the other Alliance vessels, to be replaced by great plumes of flame. A fair number of Nephilim carrier ships succumbed to the tactic.

The stratagem of using unmanned Star Destroyers as massive bombs had proven quite effective, though dreadfully expensive, during the droid crisis two years ago. It would be far less effective a second time, given the Nephilims' ability to quickly adapt to new tactics. Thus, now had been the perfect time to implement it.

Hordes of Alliance fighters, and the massive _Epsilon_-class shuttles they'd been tasked with protecting, had managed to break through the Nephilim ranks and head toward Selonia. The newly created _Epsilon_-class shuttle was a larger cousin of the _Lambda_-class shuttle, and was used to deploy ground forces.

#

Razors swarmed Tahiri and Yantahar's squadron of Made Jedi as they approached the world of Selonia, with an _Epsilon_-class shuttle in their midst. X-wings were forced to twist out of the way as the flying cutlery attempted to slice and dice. Remaining in the way would not keep the space born daggers from the shuttle and would have resulted in the destruction of several X-wings. A pair of Razors then got past the X-wings and headed toward the _Epsilon_ shuttle. One of the droid fighters exploded in a ball of flame and shrapnel as the shuttle scored a hit.

And the other suddenly detonated as an X-wing slammed into it. Ziggy felt a knife blade of loss as that X-wing pilot was torn from the fabric of the Force.

The Force was supposed to be a gift. And it had been. Sight to a blind man. His delusions that nothing but the material existed had been stripped away from him. This was not just physical warfare; it was far more than that. There were forces that were known perhaps only to the Force that fought too: fought in battles and wars that affected them as well, whether or not they were ever aware of it. And he realized, also, in a flash of epiphany punctuated by an explosion in the darkness of space, that these forces warred for their very souls. These entities, always struggling to keep their own in their folds. And the concept of it frightened him beyond anything he had ever felt, for it was on a primal level, in the very core of his being. And it was something that he would rather never think about.

At times what Ziggy perceived through the Force was darn near overwhelming. Deafening. Agonizing. How the Jedi, those born with the Force, could even survive without somehow numbing themselves…

Ziggy suddenly juked his fighter as a Razor tried to ram him. It scraped against his deflector shield, but didn't cause any significant damage.

#

Jaina had joined up with two Made Jedi and the _Millennium Falcon_, piloted by her mother Leia, and taken position around a massive _Epsilon_-class shuttle. Her father Han and husband Jag manned the laser turrets. This was pretty much considered a suicide mission and Jag would be in less danger aboard a ship piloted by a Jedi. Their daughter Mara Padme would be less likely to lose both parents this way. And the _Falcon_ needed a second gunner anyway.

Jaina was proud of her mother. Not too long ago, when Leia was in politics, she didn't even consider herself to be a Jedi. And now she was on her way to becoming a Master...

Jaina suddenly experienced a mild sense of horror as the Ninth Gate opened up in a supernova of light. This short lived star died, becoming a disk of darkness. The other saucer had arrived. Fighters and_ Epsilon _shuttles became short lived orbs of flame as the heavens rained Hades 'down' upon them.

Jaina suddenly felt as though hot water had been poured on her head and instinctively veered away from the shuttle seconds before it detonated. She saw pieces of shrapnel impact the_ Millennium Falcon's _deflector shield. Sparks raged momentarily, but the YT-1300 freighter remained intact. The two Made Jedi, however, had not been as fortunate.

A couple several Star Destroyers broke free of the mottled gray prison of hyperspace and into the speckled emptiness of realspace, some distance from the newly arrived Nephilim saucer. Streamers of fire fell upon the great disk's deflector shield as Moff Lecersen's fleet charged forward. The massive Nephilim ship redirected most of its fire against them to keep from being rammed, which allowed more Galactic Alliance fighters and shuttles to make it past this circular titan and into the atmosphere of Selonia.

Swarms of Imperial and Mandalorians fighters and Shadow TIEs buzzed furiously out of their triangular hives. And among them, protected as though they were queen bees, were a few Imperial _Epsilon_-class shuttles.

Jaina could feel a powerful darkness suffusing the Imperial/Mandalorian fleet. Lecersen had brought a Sith along to coordinate his fleet. And though she wasn't thrilled, she had admit that it would make Lecersen's Forces far more helpful.

Jaina probed the darkness guiding the Imp/Mando fleet and felt an evil presence that she did not recognize. Another Sith to worry about, and a powerful one, too. But that didn't make sense. Why not use a Sith the Jedi knew about. So that the Jedi knew less about their enemy. There was obviously a reason for it and it had the Jedi Master worried.

#

A scar of dead and defiled ground marked the location of Selonia's enormous planetary repulsor, the location of the terrible, though necessary bombardment Diktat Tarkin had ordered a few days prior.

The landscape was littered, here and there, with the debris of decimated buildings, and was more or less crawling with Nephilim foot soldiers.

The swarms of Razors made it nearly impossible to vape any of them or to land the shuttle. A number of Razors suddenly broke off to deal with a swarm of Shadow TIEs, courtesy of Moff Lecersen. Tahiri chastised herself for feeling that the Imperial terrorist had saved the day.

The _Epsilon_ shuttle fired in a defensive circle around itself as it came to hover a couple meters above the ground. Panels on its left and right sides slid aside, liberating a number of wheeled Decimekas. The Decimator droids 'leapt' out, while the Execekas on their backs unfolded so that they could bring their weapons to bear. The droids were followed by foot soldiers wielding high powered energy weapons and shatterguns.

Panels on the top of the shuttle also slid aside, revealing droid gunships which took flight and joined the ground based droids and foot soldiers in their assault on the Dark Ones.

Many other such shuttles were following suit, or at least trying to.

The sky was full of fighters from both sides, trying to take out each other, and occasionally taking out opposing ground forces.

Tahiri and Ziggy and several Made Jedi leapt out of their X-wings. Their fighters remained with Yantahar and the rest of the squadron, since Astromechs these days could fly and fight just fine so long as there was a living pilot to guide them.

#

Andromeda's staff unfurled itself as she leapt out of Allana's X-wing, and she was twirling her staff, deflecting silvery enemy fire even before she touched the ground.

Upon landing she slammed her staff down on the blade of another Nephilim, and used the force of the impact to throw herself into the air. She fired a blast of azure energy at the double visored visage and the Dark One fell down, a smoking crater in place of a face.

Seff and a number of Made Jedi made it to the ground, safely-relatively speaking-within the ranks of Executor and Decimator droid, to see Andromeda practically plunging into a group of Nephilim. It seemed reckless at first, but it soon became clear that the girl-from-the-egg knew exactly what she was doing as Dark soldiers began to fall.

Andromeda fought with a brutality and precision that were almost disturbing. And while she appeared to be full of rage, Seff felt no such thing from her. There was an utter lack of emotion from her.

Such was the case with Seff's unofficial apprentice Thrace, though the Chiss Jedi did it to protect himself from the dark side. Whereas a neural scan had revealed that Andromeda's brain seemed to have a natural mechanism for shutting off emotions. This would surely be the case with the rest of her kind. Perhaps this was part of what made her such a capable fighter, as she did not need the Force in order to control or shut off her emotions.


	11. Chapter 11

In orbit

The Imperial Star Destroyers continued to fire away at the saucer, to keep it away from Selonia. A number of them were prepared to ram the Nephilim monster should it get too close to the planet. Several Dark carrier ships hatefully blasted away at the Imperial/Mandalorian fleet as they moved in to protect their larger comrade.

Though Lecersen's forces were taking quite a savage beating, they were still faring less horribly than the Alliance fleet. This melee was occurring more on the fringes of the battle, so the Imperial/ Mandalorian fleet was less surrounded by the enemy. Lecersen was counting on the Nephilim being more concerned about the larger Alliance fleet. And apparently he'd been right. If he played his cards right he could come out ahead in this.

Several Nephilim carrier ships were chewing on the _Turk Brand_ and its five escorts as they sought to join up with Lecersen's forces. The titanic Star Destroyer's deflector shield was rippling so violently that it was practically shaking. The shield generators, as well as the weapons systems, were being terribly taxed. One overload could potentially cripple the entire ship.

Massive sheets of energy silently thundered from the _Vanquisher_-class Star Destroyer's starboard batteries as it fired on the saucer. Geysers of light erupted from the saucer as it began sustaining severe damage.

#

Allana and Thrace were in near agony from the mental focus required by the battle meditation, and the thousands of deaths they were feeling through it. It was like having a migraine while being scourged.

Allana and Thrace were soaked with sweat, and they'd begun to turn pale. And they were also starting to shiver. Cilghal and Tekli had just put in IV's. The two Jedi Knights hadn't even seemed to notice when they'd put the needles in, so focused were they on the battle meditation.

A tendril of blood had begun to slither its way out of Thrace's left nostril. A small blood vessel in his brain had burst. It was just a small one, but a larger one could burst at any moment. And it was only a matter of time before the same thing happened to Allana.

Allana and Thrace were prepared to die. Whether by being blown up or from excessive brain bleeding, it mattered not. Already one with each other, they would soon be one with the Force.

But on the off chance that they were wrong, it would be an atrocity not to keep fighting.

Yet, to keep fighting required that they commit an atrocity. That they throw away tens of thousands of lives to slow down the Nephilim so that Andromeda's virus could be uploaded.

And, so they chose the lesser of two evils, They could do no more than that with the Force-forsaken 'Either-or-' that fate had thrown at them.

#

Selonia

Screams from energy weapons and the dreadful hammering of shatterguns filled the air. But heard in the background, and far worse, were the screams of people being brutally injured, murdered.

Droid gunships fired from above Tahiri's battle group, throwing up great clouds of dust and the occasional Nephilim foot soldier. The air was hot and intense heat radiated from the ground and Tahiri suspected that most of this was from the turbolaser bombardment Diktat Tarkin had ordered. It would be decades before anything could even begin to grow there again.

Ziggy's fear and anger continued to build as the man beside him was blown backward, a smoking hole in his chest. He'd thought he'd be able to handle ground combat; after all he'd felt thousands of people die before. But to see it, up close like this was a whole other matter.

Several droid gunships fired from above as Tahiri led her battle group from the north toward the group led by Luke Skywalker and his son Ben. Aside from a bloody line across his chest and a nasty cut on his left leg, which must have been cauterized by a lightsaber, Ben was uninjured.

Luke lifted his left arm and directed a powerful blast of Force energy into a crowd of Nephilim. Most of them managed to leap or twist out of the way, but it allowed a pair of Decimator droids to cause serious damage. As the Jedi Master lowered his hand, Tahiri saw that he was missing a finger.

The group finally managed to fight their way over to the mouth of the nearest tunnel into the subterranean repulsor complex, where they met up with Seff and Andromeda and their forces. A pair of droid gunships blasted away at the heavily reinforced door until it buckled inward.

A horde of Nephilim soldiers, like enormous black ants, poured out of the broken doorway. They clashed, some in midair, with droids and Jedi. None of the Jedi had even sensed the Nephilim hiding behind the door. Tahiri would have to ask about that later, assuming she survived.

One of the droid gunships fired a single missile into the tunnel, creating a powerful shock wave that bowled some of the Dark Ones over, but not collapsing the tunnel. Execekas and Decimekas surged into the tunnel, followed by the Jedi and Made Jedi, and a pair of gunships. Bolts of energy flashed back and forth inside the tunnel as the group exchanged fire with the Nephilim soldiers inside the tunnel.

Some of the decimator droids were partially up on the walls of the tunnel, their large silvery blades scraping against the floor, throwing up showers of sparks, as they used them to prevent themselves from falling over sideways. Execekas scuttled over them, looking very awkward but moving at an impressive speed. It was fairly obvious now that these droids had been created by an insectoid species, reminding Tahiri of her time among the Killiks as a Joiner.

The Jedi and droids fought onward, eventually reaching the heart of the repulsor complex. Seff and Andromeda cautiously ran to the center of the chamber. Andromeda pointed her staff at the floor and sent out a small arc of blue energy. The azure flames danced about for a second or so and then stopped. A silver mushroom-like object began to grow out of the floor, reminding Seff of those Termination Protocol holos. This silver mushroom flattened on the top, and molded itself into a sort of console.

Andromeda pulled out a datapad and placed it on the console. When, as expected, nothing happened Andromeda loosened slightly her grip on her staff weapon. It almost instantaneously folded up and she placed it on the console. Silvery tendrils grew out of the top of the console and began to wrap themselves around the crystal.

Andromeda put her hand on the crystal and closed her eyes. She focused for a few seconds and then a number of silvery tendrils reached out to the port of the datapad. The device lit up as the console began to access it. Andromeda's eyes snapped open, revealing enormous pupils. Her fingers began to fly across the datapad's keyboard. She typed in a few final commands, and complex lines of computer code began racing across the screen of the datapad.

#

Nephilim mainframe

Foreign, hostile code had been detected. The mainframe's 'immune system' sent out a vast number of digital antibodies to surround and terminate the invader. The line of offending code began to degrade and disintegrate under the attack. As it was being destroyed, this virus created a sort of 'cloud' of interference.

Smaller pieces of code, which Ghent had dubbed computer transposons, hidden deep within the virus were freed by the disintegration enacted by the Nephilim immune system. These small pieces of code 'swam' through the 'cloud' of interferences. Disguising themselves as harmless subroutines, these transposons attached themselves to various segments of Nephilim code involved with communication.

Within far less than a fraction of a second, the virus and its interference were completely gone. As the Nephilim fleet at the Corellian system sent updates on their situation to other fleets, the code infected with the transposons also spread.

Deep within one of the Nephilim vessels, suspended by massive support struts was a massive geodesic sphere that appeared to be made of diamond. Once home to a raging storm of color, it had now begun to dim.

The Nephilim realized, a nano-second or so later, that there was a potentially catastrophic error and promptly discontinued all digital communications.

#

_Minotaur_

A predatory smirk came to Darth Blight's pebbly lips as he watched the Nephilim vessels begin to fall slightly out of formation. The Barabel Sith reached out toward the Dark fleet, and felt a disruption to their energy flow. Nephilim ships began breaking off, heading backward or forward away from Selonia's gravity well. The first saucer to arrive was now a flaming wreck. The other had begun to sustain significant damage.

Darth Blight felt Darth Krayt nudge him through the Force. The Barabel made an amused sissing sound as he sat down and bowed his head and his eyes closed to small slits. The Barabel Sith expanded his Force awareness toward the Alliance fleet. He could feel the presence of a few hundred Force users. Darth Blight let his hatred bleed into the Force and began to focus it on them.

#

Selonia

A throng of Nephilim foot soldiers blocked the way out of the repulsor complex. They began to exchange fire with some of the droids. Seff, Andromeda, and Tahiri joined up with those droids. Luke and Ben remained in the main chamber with the remainder of the droids to deal with another group of Dark Ones.

Andromeda swung her staff in Seff's direction. And while it seemed idiotic not to move he remained where he was. The crystal staff shortened, the spear tip missing him by millimeters. When the weapon passed him it suddenly elongated to impale the chest of an approaching Nephilim.

Andromeda suddenly stumbled, while Seff was nearly overcome by nausea. He put up a Force block and sent a sense of warning…

Andromeda was already aware of it and suddenly bent backward, farther than most humans could do, to avoid an incoming blade. She then straightened and swung her staff toward that Nephilim. That Dark One suddenly whipped forward, impaling itself on her staff. As that end of the staff was retracting it suddenly occurred to Andromeda that-

One of the other Dark soldiers took advantage of Andromeda's predicament and plunged one of its blades into her lower back. She shrieked in agony and dropped her staff as the blade came out through her abdomen. The Nephilim soldier almost cut her in two as it pulled the blade out.

Seff felt as though hot led had just been poured over his heart, melting it and setting it ablaze. And that blaze soon suffused every fiber of his being. His vision seemed to take on a blood red hue. He screamed something, whether it was a curse or just an incoherent wail of something beyond rage, he did not know.

Seff charged at the Dark soldier, not caring that he could die, perhaps even hoping that he would. He could feel his muscles burning, not with fatigue but with the Force, as he leapt into the air. He slashed the forward blade of Thrace's saberstaff at the monster's neck. He then flicked his wrist, slamming the other blade into the other side of the Dark soldier's neck. And with a rending motion of his free hand the head was torn off and sent flying. Before it had even truly registered to Seff, he had landed and had Force shoved the headless Nephilim into one of its comrades.

Anger continued to pour into Seff as he ran toward the downed enemy. Some inner darkness had just been awoken within him, and had taken over. A murderous ecstasy, both strengthening and tormenting him with its dangerous, exhilerating adrenaline.

The arm of Seff's flight suit started to melt away as blue electricity began dancing across his arm. An azure bolt of energy slammed into the Dark soldier's chest. Seff suddenly deactivated the saberstaff, and then reactivated it, the blade easily piercing the weakened armor.

#

In orbit

The Barabel Sith's attack had momentarily rendered Jaina unable to pilot her X-wing. Luckily, her astromech had taken over to prevent her from slamming headlong into the _Falcon_. But many other Jedi and Made Jedi hadn't been so fortunate. None of them had put up an enhanced Force block because they'd needed their full concentration to fight the Nephilim.

Jaina threw up a Force block, and felt her mother doing the same. The Jedi Master reached out toward Allana and Thrace; the two Jedi Knights were incredibly weak. Jaina's X-wing suddenly shook, and she checked the sensors. "Sithspawn!" she muttered. Three TIE Defenders were on her tail. She groaned upon sensing a familiar presence. Vestara Khai. A number of red needles suddenly flew by Jaina's X-wing, and slammed into the TIEs' deflector shields.

Han Solo grimaced as a pair of Razors came at the _Millennium Falcon_. One of them exploded in a fiery hail of metal as a pair of red energy bolts passed through its weakened deflector shield. "Nice shot, Jag," Han commented.

The second Razor suddenly disintegrated as Han scored what he considered a lucky hit. He glanced down at his tactical display. The red blips representing Nephilim vessels and the blue blips representing Alliance ships were winking out more quickly than the yellow blips representing Lecersen's forces...

Han gritted his teeth as the deflector shield on Jaina's X-wing rippled furiously under heavy enemy fire. He'd already lost two of his children; he was not going to lose his last surviving child. Han snatched up the comm. It was a crazy idea, even for the former gambler, but that was why it was so brilliant. "We can work with the Nephs," he said as Admiral Bwua'tu came on the line. "We'll help 'em retreat if they agree not fire on us. We'll both end with more ships that way." The Dark Ones could no longer communicate via their computer systems, but Han wagered they still possessed good old comm systems as backup.

"Alright," the Bothan admiral said. He kept the line open as he relayed Han's proposition.

"Agreed," responded the most plain voice Han had ever heard; he couldn't even identify the gender of the speaker. It shouldn't have been a surprise, considering that the Nephilim were genderless.

#

The rippling of the _Turk Brand's_ deflector shield subsided significantly as the remaining Nephilim saucer ceased firing on the mammoth Star Destroyer, and both ships, along with their smaller escorts, began focusing their combined efforts on the Imperial ships. The saucer continued firing on Moff Lecersen's forces even as it began to edge away from Selonia and the world's gravity well.

Several of the other remaining Alliance vessels began moving in on the Imperial/Mandalorian fleet, providing cover fire for the Dark fleet's retreat. The Nephilim vessels did not enter hyperspace after leaving Selonia's gravity well, but remained so that the Alliance and Imperial forces wouldn't be tempted to team up on the Dark One's comrades.

After several minutes the moderately damaged Nephilim saucer was able to escape Selonia's gravity well. It and a number of the carrier ships suddenly vanished in great flourishes of light. More seed shaped vessels followed, until all the Dark ships, including the Razors, had departed.

#

_Minotaur_

"I suggest a temporary truce," said Admiral Bwua'tu's voice over the comm. The Nephilim had suffered a major blow, but that didn't mean they were no longer a threat. Lecersen was more than smart enough to understand that. "Or my forces can blow you to the Void."

Moff Lecersen frowned at the tactical display. His fleet was desperately outnumbered. He was only alive because he'd be needed to help fight the Dark Ones when they retaliated. "You're one clever mutt," the Moff said grudgingly.

#

Selonia

Seff felt himself begin to shake as he took down another Nephilim warrior. At first he thought it was from the furious pumping of his heart, combined with exhaustion, but the following sounds of massive detonations made it clear that it was from strafing runs being conducted against the Dark Ones that had been left behind on the planet.

The red tinge began to Seff's vision started to dissipate as the fighting died down. He stumbled as a wave of exhaustion passed over him.

Seff looked over at Andromeda, and could feel her life force slipping away. He ran over to her. He gently placed a hand under her back. He gently sat her up, using the Force so that her broken body did not fall apart.

Andromeda whimpered softly as Seff held her to him. It was the only time he had felt any sort of weakness from her. Seff could feel and hear Andromeda's heart rate slowing down. He saw in her eyes, for the first time, how much she truly loved him. And longed to be dying with her.

Seff kissed Andromeda. And then her heart gave out, forever. Seff's heart became a lead weight, and fell down into his diaphragm.

Andromeda was dead, and yet her body remained. "Staff, now," he mumbled. Tahiri walked over to him and placed the alloy wrapped crystal into his outstretched hand. He placed it in Andromeda's hand. Nothing happened. Seff put his hand on the staff and focused for a second. The crystal suddenly morphed back into the staff. He closed Andromeda's hand around it. "She's a Jedi," Seff muttered. He began to stroke her hair as her body began to vanish into the Force.

"Good bye," he whispered, one last time, as she became one with the Force- and closed his eyes. _There is no death, there is only the Force._

**Author's note: The decision to kill off Andromeda was not made lightly, and I feel like a dianoga for doing it. But the reason will become apparent later on.**


	12. Chapter 12

**Author's note: Some may have skipped over chapter 10. It was posted the same day as chapter 11.**

_Poison Moon_: orbiting Bal'demnic

Darth Plagueis had dispatched Dician and her crew to keep an eye on the Geonosian cortosis mining operation. Cortosis could be used to make lightsaber resistant armor, among other things. Plagueis had suggested that cortosis could be used to make blades, for the Shadow TIEs, capable of cutting through a deflector shield. The first tests had been failures, as the blades had begun to melt upon contact with the deflector shield.

"But thanks to the alterations the Geonosians made to the formula, the blades no longer melt," the dark skinned Sith woman told Plagueis. "They are still less effective than what Abeloth used in the original Shadow TIEs. The blades tend to fracture after about eight uses."

Darth Plagueis nodded his dark, armored head. "That is adequate."

"That's what I thought," Dician agreed. "So I told the Geonosians to mass produce the blades. And they located an enormous pocket of cortosis about thirty seven hours ago."

#

Geonosis

Darth Plagueis reached over and terminated his transmission with Dician. The undead Sith lord had helped Dician arrange for Chief of State Scaur to provide almost ninety percent of the funding for the Bal'demnic mining operation. Of course, Dif Scaur was not providing direct funding, as the operation needed to remain quiet. And so the Chief of State was funneling credits through the account of a shell corporation-a fake photonics company on a colonized asteroid in the Osseon system.

Moff Lecersen was also funneling funds through that same shell corporation, to the Bal'demnic operation. This established a connection between Lecersen and Scaur, and provided more leverage with which to manipulate the Chief of State.

Darth Plagueis could feel the myriad vibrations of humming, rumbling, and shrieking machinery as the partially automated production facility churned out vast numbers of war droids. Geonosian general Eorzag led the Sith lord, a massive Hutt named Gardula the Elder upon her hover dais, and four Colicoids through the production facility, proudly describing the specifications and capabilities of the various droids under construction. Along with Decimekas and Execekas were squadrons of Shadow TIEs and tri-fighters.

Darth Plagueis had come to Geonosis primarily to speak with Dician and to tour the Geonosian manufacturing plant. But the Sith lord had also been prepared to coordinate the planet's defense should the Nephilim have become aware of the activities on Geonosis and decided to attack.

An attack, in the immediate future, was unlikely in light of the message Plagueis had taken aboard the Sith Meditation Sphere several minutes before speaking with Dician. Moff Lecersen had informed the undead Sith lord that the virus had been uploaded into the Nephilim mainframe, and that all the Nephilim fleets had been affected and had been forced to retreat.

Plagueis was slightly disappointed that the future Jedi Queen had not been confirmed dead, but he had not expected her to die. The whole point of having Lecersen attack the Alliance fleet was to make him look bad. Which, in turn, would make Moff Gatterweld look good.

Plagueis felt a strong sense of pride from General Eorzag as the Geonosian led the group through a large tunnel to another area of the facility. Several gigantic droids with a pair of massive, circular treads stood against the left wall. Hailfire droids.

And slightly further away, by the adjacent wall, and to Plagueis' slight surprise, were somewhat smaller droids with four legs and two impressive laser cannons. Scorpenek Annihilator droids.

"Their firepower will be quite useful," Darth Plagueis told General Eorzag. "But I fear their great size will make them more vulnerable to the Nephilim."

"We have considered this," Eorzag said. "We would place them toward the rear of our ranks, further away from harm. And a number of Execekas and Decimekas would remain nearby to safeguard them."

Plagueis nodded. "I'm glad you've given consideration to that."

#

_Errant Venture_: orbiting Kuat

"So how are you two feeling?" Leia asked.

"Like we were eaten by a rancor and... came out the other end," Thrace said.

"And that is a fact," Allana added. "What about Andromeda?" she asked a moment later. "We blacked out before..." Allana trailed off as her grandmother shook her head.

Thrace shook his head. "Bloody heck," he muttered. "How's Seff?"

"I haven't had time to talk with him..." Leia trailed off as Thrace suddenly stared off into space.

"Why are they here," the Chiss Jedi asked no one in particular. "The Silentium," he clarified.

#

"I am the Other," said a voice over the comm. "I speak on behalf of the One, who is no more."

"This is Captain Mirrax Terrik Horn of the _Errant Venture_. What may I do for you?"

"We have been attacked," said the Other. "We would like to show you footage of the attack, to see if you can identify those who attacked us."

Mirrax glanced at her husband Corran. "I don't sense any hostility from them," the Jedi Master said.

"And I should be able to tell if they're trying to slice us," Thrace said. "Not that they would, of course," he quickly added.

Footage of multiple battles between the silver blue Silentium and jet black seed shaped vessels with fighters resembling razors, displayed simultaneously, came up on the screen. Mirrax groaned upon seeing a giant skeletal saucer in some of the battles. She hoped desperately that they were all the same one. Toward the end of the final battle the Dark ships suddenly became rather sluggish. The Silentium managed to do some damage as they fought their way out of the enemy blockade. "We've been fighting against them," Mirrax said. "We call them the Nephilim. We managed to upload a virus to their mainframe."

"We had concluded something such as that had been done," the Other said. "You are in our debt for that act. The Nephilim appeared to be positioning themselves to follow us as we prepared to enter hyperspace. We estimate that they will arrive here in fifty point eight six seven hours."

"Looks like we have another fight on our hands," Corran commented.

#

_Turk Brand _:orbiting Selonia

Tahiri found Seff in the pilots' lounge. He had a cubix in his hands. Resting on his lap was Andromeda's staff weapon, in its compact configuration. Seff also had earbuds in, connecting to his comlink. She looked at its screen; Seff was listening to the _Black Hot Banshee Peppers_. She sat down beside him. Seff finished solving the cube and handed it to Tahiri. She took a few seconds to scramble it and handed it back to him. Seff needed that cube right now. He needed something to focus on or he'd lose it.

Tahiri felt a sudden sense of mild frustration from Seff, and he suddenly handed her the cubix. "Take this bloody thing away from me," he said wearily. Tahiri put it on the floor beside the couch.

"She was the one," Seff mumbled. Andromeda had been his soul mate. He'd never find anyone else like her. Never love someone like he'd loved her.

Tahiri gently squeezed his hand. Anakin had been her soul mate. She'd never find anyone else like him. Never love someone like she'd loved him.

Seff placed an arm around Tahiri's shoulders and, pulling her close, kissed her forehead. It was not a romantic gesture, as she was like a sister to him at the moment.

Ever since Tahiri had been captured by the Yuuzhan Vong, and had some of their DNA implanted into her, she'd hated having her head touched. But this was somehow different. Tahiri could have gone to sleep, with Seff's arm around her. She sighed.

"Right," Seff said glumly. "You gotta go check out that bloody seed ship."

"Will you be alright?" Tahiri asked.

"No. But I won't be alright no matter what the bloody heck anybody does. So go have fun. I'll still be here when you get back."

#

Luke Skywalker, his son Ben, Tahiri, and Saba headed to their X-wings. The Jedi Master pulled the glove onto his left hand. The empty pinkie finger stuck out oddly, as there was no finger to fill it. "It was the same one who helped me fight Abeloth when I went beyond shadows to fight her."

Luke looked out through the magcon field, at the ships floating in lifeless silence beyond. He could just make out a disk of darkness in the dead, sparkling void of space. If space represented death, then what did the even darker Nephilim ships represent?

There was something horribly wrong about these Dark Ones. A certain evil Luke had never thought could exist.

"I wish we had Thrace with us," Ben said, as he looked at a nearby Dark ship. He and the other three Jedi would be going in there to see what could be learned about the enemy. Thrace had begun to develop an incredible ability to sense the flow of energy in machinery after he'd received his prosthetic arm. It was an incredibly advanced piece of machinery, which probably had something to do with the Chiss Jedi's ability. Thrace might have thus been able to sense danger before the other Jedi.

Cilghal had contacted the _Brand_ not long ago, from the _Errant Venture_, to report that Allana and Thrace were alive, and were recovering.

"How's Seff?" Luke asked.

"Not good," Tahiri said with sigh. "I'm really worried about him. He didn't want me to go."

#

As with the Razors, the Nephilim carrier ships had no definite top or bottom. The Super Star Destroyer the_ Lusankya_ had been like that, though it had still possessed a definite top side.

Luke expanded his Force awareness toward the massive seed shaped vessel as he led Ben, Tahiri, and Saba into a large hole in the hull of the Dark ship. He could feel the great mass of the carrier ship. Could feel the ship's mass shadow pulling on the fabric of space-time. It certainly felt like the Force. He probed deeper, and felt that rotten facsimile of life he'd felt from the Dark Ones. That same emotionless hatred. Luke had always thought of hatred as an emotion, until he'd encountered the Nephilim.

Incredibly bright lights, temporarily mounted to the tops of the X-wings, illuminated a large hangar bay. The walls were covered in triangular protrusions resembling a pair of giant shark teeth, one on top of the other. The Razors obviously fit into them.

Luke's brow furrowed in an unusually deep frown. He could sense the ship, and the evil within it, of course. But something just didn't feel right. He needed to go deeper. To better understand what he was dealing with.

The Jedi Master visualized a body of water, and imagined his consciousness going into it. Imagined himself sitting on the bottom of a vast seabed. He began to get the distinct impression that he shouldn't be there. That he didn't belong.

Against his better judgement, Luke decided to remain under just a bit longer. He could feel a powerful sense of revulsion seeping into the silt below him, and the water surrounding him. And he began to feel cold and sweaty.

There was a piercing ringing, screaming sound that filled his mind, which he could not hear with his ears. Luke felt as though he was trying to hold together a pair of magnets that had the same charge. And yet, these two forces were opposites. Not the way in which the light and dark sides of the Force were opposites. This was far more profound.

Luke began to feel as though he was drowning and suffocating, and finally came up for air. He gasped and realized he'd been holding his breath.

Luke suddenly recalled his encounter with Dzym on the world of Nam Chorios a few decades earlier. Though he'd appeared to be human, Dzym was, in fact, a giant, sentient droch, He'd been created that way by a cook who'd wanted to please his master, a Hutt former Jedi named Beldorian. Hutts were well known for the sadistic pleasure they took in eating sentient creatures.

Dzym had managed to escape and, over the years, had come to have the form of a man. The disgusting, cloying facsimile Luke had felt from this droch man was not unlike what he'd sensed from the Nephilim. Had Dzym also existed in this... Anti-Force?

As with the Nephilim, Dzym's life force was one that had been twisted into something worse than death. The Yuuzhan Vong had done the same with life. But Luke had never been able to sense _them_.

Had the Yuuzhan Vong simply not gone far enough to...

"So," Ben commed, pulling Luke from his grim thoughts. "There's got to be some way into this thing. A maintenance hatch, maybe?"

"Unless those docking stations have repair mechanisms built in," Tahiri said.

"Yeah," Ben agreed. "But what if those repair mechanisms got damaged?"

"I don't think that's important at the moment, Ben," Luke commed. "I doubt they'd be big enough for our X-wings."

"Oh, blast it," Ben said. "Like literally." He could picture Tahiri rolling her eyes, but not being able to hold back an amused smile.

The four X-wings assumed a vertical diamond formation and, with their laser cannons, chewed a large hole through the wall of shark teeth. Beyond was a large, cylindrical hallway. It hosted a great many indentations. If this was intended to be a gravity free environment then these indentations may have acted like the rungs of a ladder.

"Zsomething in here izs zstill alive," Saba Sebatyne said in her subtly hissing voice.

Luke could feel what the Barabel Jedi felt, through the Force meld he and other Jedi shared with her. And so, as one, they went through a series of corridors until they were surrounded by hundreds of life presences that might as well have been dead.

The lights atop the X-wings lit up the corridor as though it was some sort of stadium hosting a sporting event. The passageway appeared to be made of hundreds of transparent purplish hexagons. They seemed to sparkle like those iridescent tiles Tahiri thought were so beautiful.

But then, as she examined them more closely, Tahiri began to feel sick. In most of these chambers were brains, connected to a network of tubes, needles, and perhaps other things. Some of these brains were in early stages of development and appeared to have machinery growing out of them. Tahiri recalled Cilghal showing her the scaffolding one of the Nephilim brains had been grown around. Brain enhancement technology.

Tahiri felt a lump forming in her throat. And experienced a profound sense of loss. All these lives ruined before they'd ever begun. Predestined by their cruel creators to be tormented from the very instant they were conceived, so that all they would ever know was hatred and violence. They would never know life because they had been born dead.

"A perverzsion of nature," commed a disgusted Saba Sebatyne, echoing Tahiri's dark thoughts. "Whatever they have done, they have gone beyond the dark szide. To szomething not even of the Forzse."

The Jedi quickly moved on, anxious to find something else to distract them from that Force forsaken nursery of death and abuse.

They soon came to a dead end, beyond which Luke could feel an enormous cavern. The intervening section of alloy exploded inward as Luke opened fire, not bothering to look for an access hatch that would have been too small to begin with.

The enormous room was spherical, and suspended in the center by several massive girders was a great geodesic sphere. It appeared to be made of diamond. And Tahiri had a brief, ridiculous thought of some guy trying to impress a girl with it. She was well aware that crystals had an incredible capacity to store information. And they could even be host to a consciousness, as in the case of the crystalline tsils of Nam Chorios.

It was obviously the computer core which stood, suspended before the Jedi. Seff would have certainly made some lame GalactiNet reference. He just loved those Termination Protocol holos.

#

Long, long, long ago in the Ancestral galaxy

In a slowly decaying orbit around the vast gas planet of Abo Major was the moon world of Abo Minor. Within several generations, Abo Minor would be pulled in by its primary's gravity. The moon would be crushed by the very thing that had allowed it to sustain life.

And so, the native Aboans had sent out fleets of automated ships to planets their astronomers had deemed viable candidates for terra-forming. Upon landing, each of these vessels would reconfigure itself into multiple terra-forming facilities, specially designed for the environments in which they would be operating.

Some of these worlds were home to their own sentient races. Billions of beings perished as their environments were rendered toxic to them. But, even had the Aboans known what they were doing, they would not have stopped, nor would most of them have cared.

The Silentium were far more advanced than the other races. And when the terra-forming machines of Abo Minor came to their planet, they fought back. A long, brutal war ensued. The Silentium became increasingly desperate, as these Abominor continued to poison their world and began to score major victories. And so the Silentium began implementing devastating nuclear weapons. The Silentium eventually fought off the Abominor, but at a terrible cost. For the radiation produced by these terrible weapons soon killed the Silentium, save those who'd had the foresight to transfer their consciousnesses to mechanical bodies.

These mechanical Silentium soon learned of the other worlds that had been poisoned by the Abominor. The Aboans had murdered billions to save themselves.

In their anger, the Silentium waged war upon the Abominor. To stop this wicked crusade of death. They sent fleets to destroy the Aboan terraforming machines. In response, the Abominor began to focus their efforts toward building up their armies.

The war escalated and soon came to threaten the entire galaxy. The Silentium attacked the world of Abo Minor upon its discovery, hoping that without their creators the Abominor would have no reason to continue the fighting. The war was soon ended, and both sides began to broker a rough, but functional peace agreement.

But, this peace was short lived. As the Abominor and Silentium were forced to join forces.

The organic species of this galaxy had been witness to the destruction wrought by the Great Droid War, and knew nothing of these negotiations. And led by the mighty Yuuzhan Vong, the organic inhabitants waged war upon the Silentium and Abominor. The mechanical beings were eventually forced to flee the galaxy.

#

56 ABY

Unknown Regions

Death Surge pondered all this as he made some upgrades to the communications array of an old Venator-class Star Destroyer. After tens of thousands of years of living in this galaxy, the Abominor had begun to find abandoned starships. Deciding these vessels could be quite an asset, the Abominor began repairing them. And making upgrades to their systems.

The Abominor began constructing bipedal forms, like those of most sentient species. And became much smaller so that could dwell within their ships.

In a way, the Abominor had the Silentium to thank for this. Freeing the Abominor from their masters and causing the Abominor, along with themselves, to be driven from the galaxy in which they'd been created.

But the Silentium had destroyed an entire race when, unlike the Abominor who were just following their programming, they could have chosen not to. And for that Death Surge would forever despise those silver blue droids.

"My lord," said a shuddering, echoing voice. Its bass-like quality stood in sharp contrast to its owner's somewhat gangly appearance. Death Surge had immediately recognized the voice as belonging to his subordinate Razor Saw. "There is a fleet of ships, bearing a stealth-like quality, approaching. I've not seen such ships before. A diagnostics check confirms that the sensors function optimally."

Razor Saw remained silent a moment, as he received further sensor data. "Many of their ships are at least moderately damaged. There has been no clear indication of their intentions."

"We must prepare for hostility, regardless," Death Surge stated, as he closed an access panel, and turned to face his subordinate's mess of photoreceptors.

"Of course, my lord," Razor Saw said as he tuned his internal to address the Abominor fleet.

Death Surge could suddenly feel the electronic tingle within his main computer, informing him that a transmission was being sent to his ship. It was being patched through, via tight beam from a nearby Victory-class Star Destroyer. He activated the comm. An image of a black humanoid machine hovered above the projector. The being's face consisted of a pair of red visors, one above the other.

The face disappeared to be replaced by the sped up footage of several battles displayed simultaneously. "We are the Nephilim," said a very plain, genderless voice. "You see the damage we have inflicted upon your ancient foe, the Silentium. Join us and we shall help you to spread throughout the galaxy. We shall share technology with each other, and shall both become greater. Or you will be a potential enemy, and the results would benefit neither of us."

Death Surge linked himself to the audio receiver. "I am Death Surge of the Abominor," rumbled a buzzing mechanical voice, reminiscent of an ancient vocabulator. "The first option seems to be to both of our benefits. Perhaps, a representative could be sent to us, so that we might better discuss the terms of this potential alliance."

"This is acceptable so long as you send one of your own representatives to one of our vessels."

**Author's note: According to what I read Darth Krayt was the name of the Sith who helped Luke fight Abeloth beyond shadows. Thus, Darth Diablo/White Eyes is Darth Krayt.**

**Dzym and Beldorian appeared in the novel: Planet of Twilight.**

**And I hope you like the whole Anti-Force thing. I'll be exploring it in greater detail in some of my future work.**


	13. Chapter 13

**Author's note: E'thinaa appeared in Force Heretic II: Refugee**

Ssi-Ruuvi Imperium

"Your life forces begin to deteriorate considerably after transference to your Ssi-Ruuvi battle droids and the systems on your vessels," said the onyx colored profanity with the double visored face. It imitated perfectly the whistling characteristic of the Ssi-Ruuvi tongue. "Our technology, however, allows us to preserve every facet of a being's consciousness. And we would also assist you in consecrating worlds, so that the souls of your kind may not be lost to wander for eternity."

General E'thinaa was used to being disgusted, living among these technology worshipping saurian infidels. The savages considered it an honor to have their souls trapped inside machines.

But these Nephilim were infinitely worse. Destroying their genome, allowing only the brains to grow, and then trapping themselves in machines as quickly as possible. Such intimacy with machinery was surely an unforgivable sin. As with a true Yuuzhan Vong he saw technology for the abomination it truly was. A blatant mockery of life.

E'thinaa was wearing a massive ooglith cloaker bred to make him appear as a blue scaled member of the Ssi-Ruuvi species.

E'thinaa had no choice but to work with these red eyed monsters. He knew the majority of the Ssi-Ruu supported an alliance with the Nephilim. The opposition, of course, would remain quiet for fear of retribution. And perhaps execution. The Ssi-Ruu would just kill and replace E'thinaa.

And worse, they would be made aware of Ethina's true nature. The saurians would become much more vigilant, knowing there had been a Yuuzhan Vong in their midst. They might decide to warn others of a possible Yuuzhan Vong conspiracy. And so many true followers of Yun Yuuzhan would be put at risk. All because of E'thinaa.

"Your proposition is sound," E'thinaa whistled in the Ssi-Ruuvi tongue. "We give you our support."

The two representatives spoke at length concerning military strategy and the political climate.

#

_Errant Venture_: orbiting Kuat

Lando Calrissian bounded down the boarding ramp of the _Gentlemen Caller_. Nearby, sitting upon the flight deck via three landing struts, was a silver blue spheroid with a red 'eye' at the front.

"Hello, Master," said a voice from this strange ship.

"Vuffi Raa!" Lando exclaimed. Vuffi Raa had been his copilot, over fifty years ago, before he'd lost the _Millennium Falcon_ to Han in a game of _sabacc_. Back then Vuffi Raa had been a small, hexagon-shaped droid. "You've grown, I see."

"Why yes. It is a most peculiar process."

"I bet it is." Lando was silent a moment. Mirrax Terrik Horn had contacted him a few hours ago with the news that the Nephilim had waged war against the Silentium. Lando had been overjoyed that his former copilot, Vuffi Raa, had been among the survivors. But, unfortunately, Vuffi Raa's creator, the One, had been killed in the fighting.

"I'm sorry about your… father," Lando said, in a more serious note. His mechanical friend remained silent.

#

"These Dark Ones infected us with a virus of their own," Vuffi Raa went on in a rather subdued tone. "We were eventually able to counteract it, but many of us were lost in the time it took to do so. These Nephilim evidently saw us as a potential threat"

"Like the Oswaft," Lando said, recalling the gargantuan manta ray-like creatures. Lando and Vuffi Raa had come to the aid of these creatures five decades prior.

The Imperial Navy had sent a fleet to wipe out the peaceful creatures, because the massive space feeders had been perceived as a _potential_ threat. The Silentium had intervened in the ensuing battle. And, to Lando's knowledge, the Oswaft had been left alone ever since.

"Yes, Master," Vuffi Raa agreed.

It used to annoy the heck out of Lando when Vuffi Raa called him 'Master'. And, now, Lando found that he'd missed it. Not to hold it over the droid's… dorsal surface? Or because Lando felt any sort of superiority over his friend; the once small droid was vastly more intelligent than he. But, because it was one of Vuffi Raa's wonderful little quirks, and a sign of the droid's respect for Lando.

"So," Lando said, "about that growing process."

"I'm sure you recall the healing process I described to you after that incident on Rafa VI. It is similar to that. Additional alloy panels began to form beneath the exterior ones. Said exterior panels would split, revealing the new panels. The new and old panels would fuse to form a larger shell."

"A bit like an insect," Lando said.

"Indeed, save that the old exoskeleton remains."

Lando nodded. "I imagine this new armor plating doesn't just come out of thin air."

"No, I am not aware of any composition of air which would contain the elements necessary for the formation of the armor plating. The density of the air would certainly be irrelevant." Vuffi Raa paused a moment. "You seem quite amused Master."

"Don't call me… 'Thin air' is an expression. It basically means 'nothing'."

"A peculiar turn of phrase, I must say. Air, regardless of density is far from 'nothing'."

"Yeah, I know. I didn't come up with it. So, to make that armor plating. Do you take the elements you need from… rocks?"

"Mostly. The rocks need to have the correct metallic characteristics." Vuffi Raa went into a long elaboration of what sort of rocks were optimal for growth. And went into further detail on the growth process. Lando Calrissian would usually have found the whole explanation terribly dull. But today the distraction was exactly what he needed.

#

_Shield of Dac_: orbiting Kuat

Admiral Hiroyuki Niathal glanced again at the seat across from his, or what floated above that chair, rather. A long silver, serpentine tentacle. It was segmented and clearly mechanical, with a red point of light at the end. Basically a very advanced drone, the member of the Silentium known as the Other had sent it to the _Shield of Dac_ to make communication easier.

Admiral Niathal had been hesitant at first. The Silentium had worked with Abeloth two years prior. It had been the Other, the very being… hovering across from him, who'd created the drones through which… he'd controlled those droid ships.

Of course, another of the Silentium, Vuffi Raa had been invited upon the _Errant Venture_, which wasn't too terribly far away.

"The Nephilim will have assumed that we have gone to Kuat, since it would be the logical choice," the Other went on. "It is entirely possible, perhaps probable that the Dark Ones have deduced that the source of this coordination which you mentioned was within the _Turk Brand_. The Nephilim fleet which attacked us would certainly be unable to defeat the forces gathered here were Allana and Thrace still able to coordinate your forces."

"So the Nephilim won't attack Kuat, then," Admiral Niathal reasoned.

"It would be terribly illogical for them to do so based on what they have certainly assumed to be correct. This Dark fleet will therefore attack another location, most likely one a significant distance from Kuat. Myself and several of the rest are currently running simulations to determine where our enemy will go."

"Any idea where that will be?"

"Only a vague idea. This next attack will likely take place closer to the Corellian system. We could easily move our combined forces there without the Dark Ones knowing we've left the vicinity of Kuat."

"There would be no point, then, in leaving behind any sort of force to defend Kuat," Admiral Niathal said.

"Such a defense force would be easily overwhelmed and destroyed," the Other agreed.

#

_Turk Brand_: orbiting Selonia

"We ought to get to the X-wings, now," Andromeda says, after letting Seff hold her for a few seconds.

Seff feels a deep sense of lose welling up inside. She can't go. If she does, she will die. But if she stays, the Alliance fleet will be completely wiped out. And Andromeda will die anyway.

He can't save her. No matter what he does. He wishes time could be frozen forever, in this moment.

Knowing he's sending the person he loves most to her death, Seff lets Andromeda go...

The two of them are suddenly in the massive subterranean repulsor complex. Andromeda is surrounded by Dark Ones. She shrieks in agony and drops her staff as one of these profanities impales her, nearly cutting her in two.

Seff woke up on the couch in the officers' lounge, clutching Andromeda's staff weapon. He could still see her beautiful face, but she wasn't there. The Force, in its cruelty had torn Andromeda away from him.

The Sith. They did this. Their attack on the Jedi had weakened Andromeda just enough for her to be overtaken. They had murdered her.

Had they? Andromeda could still have died, anyway. And the Sith hadn't targeted Andromeda specifically. Hadn't targeted her like some serial killer searching for their next victim.

Andromeda had been a casualty, one of far too many, in a war that had spanned millennia. Perhaps longer. Two sides, Jedi and Sith, both wanting peace. But having opposing views on how to achieve it.

Was it that much different from the war between the Rebel Alliance and the Empire? There had been good people on both sides. People who had just wanted to provide for themselves, and their families if they were so fortunate...

From what Luke Skywalker had gathered, the Sith wanted to precipitate a 'war to end all wars'. What if the Sith were right? What if the Jedi weren't willing to do what was necessary? The Jedi could've been so much more powerful, if only they would take what the Force offered.

There wouldn't be this bloody stupid war between the Jedi and Sith. They would be united. No war between the Rebel Alliance and the Empire. Andromeda wouldn't have died.

Seff knew what he had to do. And he hated himself for it. Leaving behind everyone he loved for people he despised.

#

Seff and his green and white astromech Chirpy came to the hangar bay just as Tahiri and the others were returning. He reached out to Tahiri; she seemed distraught. He went over to Tahiri's X-wing as she landed the fighter on the flight deck. "Are you okay?" Seff asked after she'd gotten out.

"I don't know," she responded, her voice a bit shaky. "These Nephilim are worse than we thought."

"How do you mean?" Seff asked, a tiny bit perplexed.

"They don't exist in the Force."

Seff frowned. "But we all felt them."

"It was something else. We're calling it the Anti-Force." She sighed wearily.

The Anti-Force. Seff wondered if the Sith knew about this. They had to.

Tahiri glanced briefly at Chirpy. "Going somewhere?" she asked Seff.

Seff glanced over at his X-wing. "Yeah. I thought I'd just take a little ride. To clear my head. All of this is just…"

"I've been there," Tahiri said sympathetically.

Seff nodded. "I don't know how I'd be able to cope without you." How would he cope without her? "You've been a good friend." Was she more than that? He put his arms around her and kissed her forehead. He let go of her a moment later, turned, and headed toward his X-wing, leaving a confused Tahiri standing there.

#

Korriban

Seff stared out through his X-wing's canopy at the dark orb of Korriban. The Jedi would have a fit once they realized where he'd gone. It was, in a way, their fault that he'd been forced to come here.

Seff had been woken several minutes earlier by Chirpy whistling, half a minute before they'd entered realspace. He'd been in a very deep sleep. And though the trip had lasted only a couple days, Seff felt as though he'd slept for years.

And those years, years which had never even happened had been the best years of his life. A life in which Andromeda had never died. His life with her, completely imaginary as it had been, had brought him more joy than he'd thought had been possible.

And then Seff had fallen awake. Into a nightmare where the only woman he'd ever truly loved had been torn from his life. Why couldn't he have just died with her? Instead of living and longing for the embrace of death.

#

"We have a visitor," Darth Krayt said, upon feeling a small ship drop out of hyperspace. The Sith Lord turned back to the Sith Sabers he was training. Most of them had stopped sparring with one another and were staring at their master. "Did I say you could stop?" he sneered. He suppressed a smile at the embarrassment radiating from his students. "I want those lightsabers still moving when I get back."

Krayt brought his attention back to the visitor as he left the training room. This man was powerful in the Force. And though Krayt could not feel much of the light side in him, his Intense apprehension and nervousness made it apparent that he was, or had until recently been, a Jedi.

Darth Krayt cautiously probed deeper. Anger, despair, hatred. And a deep sense of loss. The dark side, just waiting for that catalyst, that spark to turn it into a lake of fire. That was all it would take to turn him.

#

Seff Hellin could feel a vaguely familiar darkness reaching out to him. He'd first felt this presence, coordinating Imperial forces, during that last battle at the Corellian system. That fateful, bloody battle where he'd lost his reason for living.

The dark side had made Seff more powerful than he'd ever been. Ever could have been, otherwise. Had he been trained in the dark side, had he been a Sith, perhaps he'd have been able to save Andromeda. The only woman he'd truly ever loved.

A war to end all wars. Trillions of people would lose the one person they loved most. But if it was to be the last war, then what these Sith wanted to accomplish was, without a doubt, for the greater good.

If the Jedi chose to stand against the one thing that could bring peace to the galaxy, then they were utter fools. And Seff could not be one of them.

The sun was setting as Seff was settling his X-wing down into the large crater to which the Sith Lord had guided him. The perimeter of this crater was lined with several holes.

Seff sighed, and opened the cockpit. With his lightsaber in hand, Seff leapt out of the cockpit and landed quietly on the ground. He turned toward one of the doorways lining the crater as he felt that same dark presence approaching.

The sun finished setting as the Sith Lord stepped out of the doorway. And Seff realized that he could never go back. His old life was over.

The Sith pulled back the hood of his dark robe as he walked toward Seff. The man's face was tattooed as Luke Skywalker had described. "I am Darth Krayt," the man said.

"Um. Seff Hellin." Something was telling him that he shouldn't be here. Shouldn't be speaking with this man. But he pushed it down. "I can't be a Jedi anymore. They won't do what's necessary. And that's a danger to the whole galaxy. So the only other option is to become a…"

"Sith," Krayt supplied.

"Yeah," Seff said, nearly choking on his reluctance.

The Sith led Seff to one of the holes. There was heavy looking metal door a meter or so in. Darth Krayt made a few gestures with his hand, drawing on the dark side, and the door slid to the left.

Seff followed him down a long corridor. There was no light so he had to use the Force to navigate. The tunnel was gently curved, and smelled very old.

"The Jedi fear the true power of the Force," Krayt said as the two made their way through a series of corridors. "While the Sith embrace it."

"That's what I figured," Seff said, with a nod, as he and the Sith made a left turn and began descending a winding staircase. "But when a Sith dies why doesn't their body vanish into the Force?"

"A good question," Krayt said. "They give themselves over to the Force and it takes them. But we Sith take the Force for ourselves rather than surrender to it."

They then went through a few more corridors, the last of which opened up into an enormous cavern. It was surprisingly well furnished. Sconces lit the room with a soft red-orange light. The walls, though rough hewn, were not abrasive.

Seff felt another, slightly more familiar presence approaching. A young woman, about Ben's age, with long brown hair and a scar at the corner of her mouth, walked into the room. "Vestara Khai," Seff said.

"She was recently named Darth Nefaria," Krayt said. "She will be training you in the ways of the dark side if you agree to it."

"Well," Seff said. "That's the whole reason I…" He suddenly called his lightsaber to his the base of his brain seemed to tingle with a sense of urgency. A verdant shaft of light burned to life just in time to parry a blow from Vestara's crimson bladed weapon.

Seff could feel a deep shadow overtaking Vestara as she called on the dark side. A sense of fury and serenity radiated from her as she began to batter down Seff's defenses. He tried to focus on his anger over losing Andromeda, but he just couldn't seem to hold on to that rage. That key to such incredible power.

Opposing shafts of light clashed as he back into a... curve-the room had no corners. What if both sides of the Force were light. Perhaps the Jedi did not recognize the dark as a different color of light simply because it was different.

The battle was soon over, with Vestara holding her blade about an inch from Seff's neck.

"You have a lot of potential, Seff. But you're holding yourself back. You can't do that if you want to be guided by the dark side."

**Author's note: The Silentium appeared in The Lando Calrissian Adventures: The Star Cave of Thonboka. They were never actually called the Silentium in the novel. I learned of their name from wookieepedia.**


	14. Chapter 14

**Author's note: Not to sound like a broken record, but it seems that some people may have skipped over chapter 10. **

**And I did make a couple changes: I felt like things were happening to quickly with Thrace and Allana, so they are now not yet married.**

**And in chapter 7 the defense of Bilbringi had originally been coordinated by Plagueis, but I switched him with Krayt. This makes more sense since Krayt did help Luke fight Abeloth. And Plagueis would want to stay clear of the Jedi for as long as possible so that they'd learn less about him. **

**And so then in chapter 8 Plagueis, and not Krayt, coordinates Concordia's defense.**

Bakura

Little interest had been paid to the world of Bakura of late. The world had a small military, which had to remain near the planet lest it be left defenseless. Clearly not a threat to the Nephilim.

The Bakurans knew nothing of the Nephilim carrier ships headed toward their world. They'd dropped out of hyperspace a considerable distance from their destination so that their reentry into realspace would go undetected. Razors silently swarmed out of the carrier ships as the seed-shaped vessels edged ever closer to the Bakuran fleet. Being this far from the core worlds, these Star Destroyers lacked the sensor upgrades necessary to effectively sense the quasi-stealth Nephilim ships.

The first indication that something was amiss came when several Star Destroyers' deflector shields began to ripple, as though one was throwing stones into a roughly spherical pond. Though such a pond was unlikely to exist in a plane of only three spatial dimensions. TIE Defenders and some older variants-which had been fitted with deflector shields and proton torpedo launchers-poured out of their Star Destroyers in an almost futile attempt to engage the Nephilim fighters. Many of the Razors simply sliced through the opposing TIEs.

The Nephilim carrier ships focused the majority of their efforts on about half of the Bakuran Star Destroyers, and within a few minutes one of them had been melted into a clump of slag. The remaining Star Destroyers began a retreat as it was clear that the attacking Dark fleet could not be fought off.

Unfortunately, not only was Bakura very close to the edge of the known galaxy, it was also uncomfortably close to the Ssi-Ruuvi Imperium, which immediately eliminated one of their escape vectors. The Nephilim fleet blocked another of their escape vectors, while a third was just too far away. This left only one viable escape vector.

The Nephilim fleet fired on the retreating Bakuran Star Destroyers, preventing three of them from escaping to hyperspace. Those vessels were disabled and left to drift because the occupants would be needed alive. The rest escaped to hyperspace, but were pulled out moments later by a Nephilim saucer and a carrier ship acting as a giant gravity well projector. Those Star Destroyers were also quickly disabled and left intact.

With no remaining opposition save for a few squadrons of TIE variants, which were easily dispatched by swarms of Razors, the Dark ships began launching dropships, carrying down a sizable occupation force to secure Bakura.

#

_Turk Brand _

"Korriban?" Tahiri repeated.

"It's just an educated guess," Luke answered. "Seff does know about it. And he didn't tell us where he was going, so he must have figured we'd disapprove."

"He's right about that," Tahiri said bitterly.

Luke nodded. "And with the affection you said he'd been showing you…"

"He'd have to have a real big problem with us to just leave like that," Tahiri finished.

"And he has touched the dark side a couple times." Luke added. He hugged her. "I'm so sorry. I hope I'm wrong."

Tahiri frowned. "You're a Jedi Master. When are you ever wrong?" It was sort of a joke, to lighten the mood, or at least try to.

"Oh, you'd be surp..." Luke grabbed his comlink as it began to beep. "Master Skywalker," he said.

"Hey, Luke," said Lando's voice. The man didn't sound too happy. "The Silentium think the Nephs are gonna hit Geonosis."

"How did they figure…"

Lando sighed. "Transfer of funds, mostly indirectly, to Geonosis. It's history during the Clone Wars, making all those droids. Geonosis is, or at least was, a pretty good place to do that. So it's a pretty sensible target. It wasn't too hard for the Silentium to figure out."

"So the Nephilim definitely would've been able to."

"Yeah," Lando said. "We just warned General Eorzag. We're getting ready to go right now. Sorry for such short notice. I hope we get there in time."

"You and me both." He shut off the comm, turned to Tahiri. "Uh, well, you heard the man."

Tahiri frowned. "I don't think there's much we can about it 'til we get there."

Luke shrugged. "Just trying to get some enthusiasm out of you."

"Alright," Tahiri mumbled. "Let's do… whatever."

#

Geonosis

The Sith had temporarily relocated to Geonosis so that they could coordinate the world's defense when the Nephilim finally attacked. And, according to a message received from the Galactic Alliance just hours ago, the Dark Ones were already en route. Dician remained at Bal'demnic aboard the _Poison Moon_, overseeing the cortosis mining operation.

Darth Plagueis glanced over at Seff and Vestara, engaged in a fierce sparring match. Darth Krayt could feel his master's approval through the Force.

"I thought they would make a good match," Krayt explained. "Seff just recently lost someone very important to him. And Vestara was never able to bring the Skywalker heir to the dark side, so she can never be with him. I've instructed her to be Seff's 'friend' in whatever capacity he needs."

Darth Plagueis nodded, and the two Sith watched the fight to its conclusion. The match ended with Vestara shutting off her lightsaber's blood red blade just before it could slice through Seff's waist. The former Jedi shook his head in mild annoyance, as he shut off his weapon, and then sat down on a bench with Vestara.

#

"I know what it's like not to fit in," Vestara suddenly said, taking a long drink from a canteen. "You should stay hydrated," she said, handing Seff the container.

"You were with the Jedi for a while," Seff said sympathetically as he stared at the canteen.

Vestara smiled. "It's water, you uvak."

Seff frowned. "Uvak?"

"We used to ride them on Kesh. Large flying reptiles. I used to have one named Tikk."

Seff shook his head in amusement. "So I'm a bloody pterodactyl. Fantastic." Vestara laughed softly and rested her head on his shoulder. She was extremely cute with those large brown eyes and that slightly upturned nose of hers. Seff immediately felt like a galaxy class dianoga for his attraction to her. He still loved Andromeda, and always would. But what was the harm? It wasn't as though anything could be done to bring back the girl-from-the-egg.

Seff cautiously put his arm around Vestara's shoulders. She shifted slightly to get more comfortable. Seff felt something deep within protesting, but he pushed it down. He was being nice to a beautiful girl, what was wrong with that?

Seff wasn't afraid to be himself around Vestara. Though this had also been true of Andromeda, Seff had felt the need, with her, to change. To become a better person. Seff had not wanted to corrupt Andromeda with his own darkness.

It was the opposite with Vestara. Seff didn't need to change because he was good enough just as he was. And she had shown him that his inner darkness wasn't a thing to be feared. It was something to be embraced.

Seff looked at the canteen again, tried to imagine what an uvak looked like, and finally took a drink. Imagined he was drinking in the power of the dark side. He began chugging the water, as though embracing this dark power.

"Hey, save some for me."

Seff sighed, in mock exasperation. "You told me to stay…" He trailed off as Vestara grabbed the canteen. "Girls. They're so complicated."

Vestara glared at him. "Do you want me to cut your head off with my lightsaber?"

"No, not particularly," Seff said. "The Jedi made you, the Sith sound like… well, horrible…" He fell silent under the sudden impression that something was terribly... wrong. He expanded his senses outward and felt... death. Thousands of life forces that had been essentially dead from the instant of conception. The Anti-Force. But it was subtle, and he was only able to sense it because he knew what to look for. "Bugger," Seff grumbled. "Nephs."

Vestara muttered a strange word he'd never heard before, as the two of them stood up.

#

Darth Plagueis could suddenly feel the vile stain of something that was not the Force, several kilometers away from Geonosis. He reached out to General Eorzag's fleet, in the orbit around the planet, and could feel the apprehensive presences of the thousands of beings, mostly the quasi-insectoid Geonosians, aboard the Star Destroyers in the world's orbit. Plagueis led the Star Destroyers to fire upon the Nephilim fleet as he summoned and ran over to the Meditation Sphere, which would greatly strengthen the Sith Lord's connection to the dark side of the Force.

Darth Plagueis studied the Dark ships through the minds of those manning the sensors. Most of the enemy vessels appeared to have sustained significant damage. And it seemed as though the ships had been repaired.

The dark man also studied the enemy ships through the eyes of the Force, now the only way the undead Sith Lord could see anything. There was, of course, still the darkness of something that was not the Force. But parts of these ships now did exist in the Force. Or rather, the material used to repair the ships did. This other machinery was very advanced, but also seemed somehow alive. Darth Plagueis would have frowned, had he possessed a mouth. Someone, it seemed, was helping these Dark Ones.


	15. Chapter 15

Geonosis

At this distance the Nephilim carrier ships were but shadows blotting out light from the stars. But the Dark ships soon began creating their own, falling stars as they opened fire on the Geonosian fleet. The silver fire illuminated the seed shaped carrier ships, revealing them to be moving sideways. Though Darth Plagueis hadn't thought about it, he was not at all surprised that the Dark ships could move this way It had already been well documented that they could move backwards, or in the case of the saucers, in any horizontal direction.

The majority of the Star Destroyers of the Geonosian fleet started turning sideways to bring their own flank weapons to bear. Darth Plagueis had had them oriented at an angle before hand so that they could either do this or turn to face the Dark fleet head on, depending on the enemy's strategy.

The Geonosian fleet replied with green and red streamers of energy, moments later, as the Dark fleet came withing firing range. All currently non-essential systems had been taken offline. This extra energy was used to strengthen areas of the deflector shields under direct assault and to put more power into the weapons systems.

The Dark fleet proceeded to bulge outward near the middle. The leading Nephilim carrier ships seemed to be focusing their efforts on a small number of Star Destroyers, as though intending to create a path down to Geonosis. Hundreds of smaller Nephilim ships-Razors and some Dropships-poured out of their carriers, but remained safely behind the massive 'shield' formed by the larger ships.

Despite the loss of their nearly telepathic digital communications, the Dark fleet still demonstrated a remarkable level of organization. Though not at the level of Darth Plagueis' forces. The quasi-insectoid Geonosians possessed a hive minded mentality, further strengthening their connection to the Sith Lord.

Darth Plagueis dismissed the idea of trying to surround the Dark fleet. The dark man in the pale armor would have to spread out his forces, which would make it easier for the Nephilim to get their forces down to Geonosis. It would also have Plagueis' forces in a compromising position for when the Nephilims' allies showed up. It was obviously a trap. Whoever or whatever was helping the Nephilim was just waiting for the Geonosian fleet to take the bait.

Or was it _too_ obvious? Perhaps the Nephilim had guessed that the Geonosian fleet had concluded what Darth Plagueis had. In which case the Dark Ones could be counting on their fleet not being surrounded. And that could also make it easier to bring much of their forces to ground.

In either case, Plagueis certainly could not leave his ships where they were. And so he went with what he thought was a less obvious approach. The center most Star Destroyers began to push forward against the Nephilim formation. Hordes of Geonosian fighters and Shadow TIEs followed behind the Star Destroyers so that they would not be wiped in the psychedelic mayhem which would soon follow.

The Dark fleet began to invert its formation in order to surround the Geonosian fleet. This forced the Nephilim carrier ships to spread out, lessening the energy demands on the Star Destroyers' deflector shields. Auxiliary power generators were engaged as this energy was rerouted to the weapons systems. And within just a few seconds, the Star Destroyers' rate of fire increased by almost a third.

Nephilim deflector shields rippled hatefully under the strengthened fire. Hundreds of Geonosian fighters and Shadow TIEs swarmed out toward the Dark carrier ships as a few Star Destroyers relaxed their firing rates to more normal levels.

Swarms of Razors left their shelter to fend off these smaller attackers. Geonosian fighters and Shadow TIEs managed to surround and overwhelm some of the Razors, while some of the Star Destroyers managed to score some hits.

Plagueis could feel, through the Force, that some of these ships had sustained significant damage. But these were delaying tactics that the Sith Lord was using, in hopes of buying time for when the Alliance fleet arrived. And, of the Nephilim were likely employing a very similar strategy.

But then the Dark fleet began to fall back slightly. Plagueis knew not to go after them. And they certainly knew he knew…

New bursts of light briefly lit up the airless sky, appearing sort of around and in front of the Dark ships, as though to form a large bowl-like formation. These points of light began resolving themselves into all sorts of ships, mostly old, and some that the dark man did not recognize. They had the same feel as what the Dark Ones had used to repair their ships. The majority of them were battered patchworks, and had components from multiple types of vessels. Some of them scarcely looked as though they should still be functional. Darth Plagueis found them rather hideous; many resembled flying scrap heaps.

These new arrivals opened fire with all different colors of light as they and the Dark ships began closing in on the Geonosian fleet. The patchwork vessels began launching their own fighters, keeping them safely outside of their net. It was an eccentric assortment of fighters, many of which were uglies. A number of the patchwork ships suddenly surged forward, with swarms of their fighters, Razors, and Dropships taking cover underneath.

#

Surface of Geonosis

Geonosis' ground based defenses, including laser emplacements, Hailfire and Scorpenek Annihilator droids, opened fire as Nephilim dropships, Razors, and absurd looking hybrids of more conventional fighters, starting screaming toward the surface of Geonosis. Many of the Razors deliberately crashed into the ground defenses. Shadow TIEs and Geonosian fighters chased after the enemy ships.

#

Darth Krayt moved himself and his lightsaber at inhuman speeds. Dark soldiers fell victim to his crimson blade and azure electricity burning almost endlessly from his free hand. Execeka's followed close behind, putting down the Dark Ones that could still pose a threat.

The tattooed Sith Lord could feel his skin begin to blister. He let the pain feed his rage. When in service to the dark side, one quickly learned that joy could be found within the fire of anger. Darth Krayt found this ecstasy in the knowledge that he fought in the service of something far greater than himself. Fought for a purpose far more important than the scope of his life.

Darth Krayt suddenly leapt into the air as a sense of warning burned from his brain stem. He spun around and landed behind one of the Dark Ones, beheading it as it spun around to face him. A split second later a small missile explode in the midst of the Execekas. The Sith Lord _reached_ out to a flying piece of shrapnel and sent it into the double visored face of a Nephilim foot soldier.

Krayt's danger sense screamed again. The tattooed Sith Lord put up a shield of Force energy just as a loud hammering sound exploded into life. A number of metal pellets slammed into the shield and fell to the ground.

Running rapidly toward him was what felt like a living droid. It looked as though an intoxicated Gammorian had gone to some junkyard and tried to create an imitation of a Nephilim soldier. And had decided that it needed two left arms. One of those arms grabbed something off of the lower left leg. It elongated into a wicked looking staff. He twirled it with his left arms as he came forward. The right forearm consisted of a large shattergun and what looked a bayonet.

Darth Krayt charged toward this new opponent, letting the dark side of the Force wash over him and guide his every movement. He directed a blast of Force lightning at the running scrap heap. The living machine caught it on its staff and slammed the bayonet down on Krayt's lightsaber, nearly knocking it from his grasp.

#

In orbit

The Nephilim and their allies now had the Geonosian fleet surrounded, and because of their greater numbers were able to maintain a healthy distance. Attempting to ram the enemy ships was out of the question, since they'd have plenty of space and time to take evasive action. And so they were gradually picking off Darth Plagueis' forces.

Just under a fourth of the Star Destroyers could still be described as battle worthy. But the combined enemy fleet stopped short of slagging many of the Star Destroyers, as though they intended to salvage them. Plagueis _reached_ out toward the Geonosian crews, compelling them to shut off the deflector shields and shunt that surplus power into their weapons systems. Tens of thousands of lives perished as the enemy was forced to destroy those Star Destroyers.

Fortunately, these were Alliance Star Destroyers. This battle was dealing a major blow to their economy. The Galactic Alliance was losing trillions of credits. But Plagueis did not want the entire fleet wiped out as that would likely make it impossible to hold Geonosis. And so he was glad when a number of star bursts began resolving themselves into Star Destroyers, one of which was the _Turk Brand_, a few Mon Calamari cruisers, and several Bothan Assault cruisers. They opened fire immediately, at the side of the enemy formation, as to free the Star Destroyers trapped within.

A split second later, another group of starbursts appeared and resolved themselves into massive, silver blue, oval-shaped vessels with what resembled large, reddish eyespots. These Silentium, as Plagueis had learned they were called, added their fire to the same area as the Alliance vessels.

A number of the hideous, flying scrap heaps turned about, and began focusing their fire on the Silentium. The patchwork vessels started losing armor plating as the Galactic Alliance fleet blasted away at them.

#

The ground continually shook, as though experiencing a violent earthquake, as ordnance and damaged ships, or parts thereof, slammed into the surface of the besieged Geonosis. Seff could hear another pair of missiles being launched from the Hailfire droid some distance behind himself and Vestara. One of the missiles exploded a couple meters above the ground less than a second later. Most of the Nephilim soldiers within the vicinity of the blast were melted and torn apart by the blast, while others were simply thrown a considerable distance.

Despite the presence of the Hailfire droid, a fair number of Dark Ones were making it past the missiles. The Geonosian troops, along with their complement of Decimekas and Execekas exchanged fire with these Nephilim, while Seff and Vestara deflected some of the silver white enemy fire. Along with her own red bladed lightsaber, Vestara was also using the dual-phase lightsaber that she'd taken the year before from Thrace's father, Thorden. The weapon's red blade was in the process of turning silver and elongating to behead one of the Nephilim foot soldiers.

A single Razor flew by, overhead. It was on fire, and trailing blackish smoke. Flying along behind it was a pair of Shadow TIEs. Seff frowned; how much of a threat... He fought the urge to glance back at the Hailfire droid. And less than a second later, there was a loud screaming sound. Like something falling from the sky. Next came the boom of a large explosion, followed by a nasty aftershock that nearly knocked Seff to the ground. His concerns were confirmed when an approaching group of Nephilim was not blown to bits by a missile. As the enemy soldiers closed in, Seff could see that some of them were quite different. They seemed to be cobbled together from piles of discarded droid parts.

#

Thrace had felt the fear begin to build the very instant the lines had shrunk back into the tiny pinpricks of stars. Had felt an oddly familiar darkness hanging over the besieged Geonosian fleet, guiding it with its oppressive presence. The Chiss Jedi could feel that darkness even more clearly, now that he was on the surface of Geonosis. The dark man, his mother's murderer, was here. Thrace suppressed a shudder as he, once again, saw that horrid, featureless non-face in his mind's eye.

Thrace reached out to the that fear and, taking hold of it, began to twist it. Into rage. He focused on this anger, began drawing upon it. Thrace could feel it detonating through his veins, strengthening him. He wished to unleash this fire upon the dark man. But, at the moment, the Sith were not the enemy. And so he would have to turn his fury upon the Dark Ones. Thrace directed a blast of Force energy at an incoming Dark soldier, sending it flying back a few meters where it was blasted apart by a large laser beam from... somewhere. The Chiss Jedi felt another opponent approaching from behind and swung his left arm back. The hand disassembled itself in a flurry of tiny metal panels and reformed into some sort of emitter nozzle. There was a _snap-hiss_ as a blue lance of energy came to life to impale the Nephilim soldier's face.

Thrace felt Allana reaching out to him, deeply concerned. He visualized a wall forming around himself. To keep her out, because he did not wish to taint her with his own darkness.

Ben Skywalker frowned as he, Allana, and Thrace joined up with a group of Geonosian soldiers and several of their war droids. Thrace had closed himself off. And whereas the young man had only moments ago been drawing on the light side of the Force, he was now tapping into the dark side. But there was nothing to be done about it at the moment. It was understandable, of course, given that Darth Plagueis had murdered the young man's mother. Ben's father had expressed his concern that Thrace would be more susceptible to the dark side because of what had happened in his past. Ben's mother had also been murdered by a Sith Lord. Darth Caedus, formerly Jacen Solo, his own cousin.

Ben led his forces onward, toward an overrun section of the manufacturing plant's defense. The Hailfire droid, which had been assigned to the area, was a smoking mess. The ground was littered with many smaller droids in a similar condition. But, far more disturbing were the bodies of dead Geonosians.

Along with Nephilim foot soldiers were nightmarish cobbled together droids which had come from the peculiar patchwork vessels that had joined the Dark Ones. According to the Silentium, these beings were called the Abominor; it was a very apt name. Like the Silentium, these beings were also somehow alive.

Ben felt a pair of familiar presences nearby, and moments later could see Vestara fighting alongside Seff, some distance away. He experienced a brief pang of jealousy at the sight of the woman he still loved, but wished he could hate, with another man, but quickly pushed it down as he led his forces onward to reinforce the two.

Seff suddenly jumped back as an Abominor with a shattergun mounted to its left shoulder opened fire. The weapon made an awful hammering sound as it launched rounds of metal pellets. The monster brought its attention to Seff, forcing him further from Vestara.

Ben saw the silver bladed lightsaber Vestara was using. The one she had stolen from Thrace's father. Ben shook his head. It was wrong. It would be murder. But Vestara had tried, at least three times that Ben knew about, to kill his cousin Allana. If Vestara did survive what would be to stop her from trying to kill Allana again? And what if she succeeded? With the Jedi Queen dead the dark man would take the Throne of Balance. How many people would die then?

Ben had to do it. He began gathering Force energy to himself. He set his teeth and reached out toward the dual phase lightsaber Vestara was using. She suddenly stumbled forward as Ben _yanked_ on the weapon. Their eyes met briefly as Vestara was forced to let go of the lightsaber. She rolled out of the way of an incoming Nephilim blade, and deflected another with her remaining lightsaber.

Vestara felt tears burning down her face. She couldn't believe Ben had just done that to her. Several bolts of silver energy came toward Vestara as she blocked another enemy blade with her lightsaber. She put out her hand, to create a shield of energy. It sparked as the enemy fire made contact. Some of the sparks made it past the shield. The flesh on her arm started to melt as some of the sparks passed through the shield.

She reached out to Ben. And hit a ferrocrete wall. "Ben, don't leave me!" she screamed. One of the Nephilim soldiers spun and delivered a savage kick to her lower back. Vestara suddenly was unable to feel her legs, and tumbled to the ground. The man she loved had abandoned her. Worse, he would be an accomplice in her murder.

#

Ben was suddenly thrown to the ground. "What the Void did you do!" Seff screamed. He stretched out his left arm. A large arc of blue fire screamed from his fingertips.

"We don't have time for this!" Ben shouted, as he reached out his left hand, intercepting Seff's attack on an invisible shield of Force energy. Unfortunately, this caused him to lose his telekinetic grip on Thorden's lightsaber. Seff stretched out his arm, and the silver bladed weapon seemed to thump right into his hand.

"I don't bloody care! They're killing her!" Seff shouted. The lightsaber's hum oscillated in pitch as Seff began swinging it.

"And how many people did she kill?" Ben retorted, as Seff charged forward. The older man slammed the long, silver blade down on Ben's green bladed weapon, almost knocking it from his hand.

"She did what she had to," Seff said as he swung his blue bladed lightsaber. Ben leapt backward. He grimaced as he felt the weapon burn into his side.

The ground trembled at the sound of several detonations; Seff added a Force shove to the mix, knocking Ben to the ground. Seff was suddenly standing over Ben, swinging the Thorden's lightsaber toward his chest, when a red bladed lightsaber intervened. Seff backed away from Ben while simultaneously whirling on... Darth Krayt.

"We need to go, you fool!" the Sith Lord sneered.

"I had him!" Seff screamed.

"Now is not the time," Krayt said, his tone like durasteel.

#

In orbit

The strategy employed by the Nephilim/Abominor fleet had taken a seemingly reckless turn in response to the arrival of the Galactic Alliance/Silentium fleet, led by the Bothan Admirals Bwua'tu and Kre'fey. The enemy vessels had seemed to almost forget about the Geonosian fleet and had turned their full attention to the new arrivals.

The Abominor vessels had taken point, allowing the more heavily damaged Nephilim carrier ships to use them as cover. The massive amount of damage the patchwork vessels were sustaining seemed to have little or no effect on them. A number of these flying scrap yards suddenly put on impressive bursts of speed, especially improbable due to the damage they'd sustained, bringing them uncomfortably close to the Galactic Alliance fleet.

And then hull plating began pealing off, as though by design. Explosions of light bled out of these wounds as the patchwork vessels seemingly eviscerated themselves. Deflector shields of Alliance and living Silentium ships rippled violently under these glowing entrails of light. The Abominor vessels shed even more armor plating. Violent sprays of shrapnel erupted from these new wounds. Some of these massive pieces of metal pierced already weakened deflector shields. Many of the Dark carrier ships began emerging from behind their cover and began firing on the damaged Alliance and Silentium vessels.

Admiral Bwua'tu surveyed the battle for a split second. In all the mayhem, it would cost too many ships and too much time to try to turn the fleet around and flee to the Corellian system. Admiral Niathal and Moff Lecersen's forces were stationed there in case the Dark Ones tried a flanking maneuver.

The only viable alternative would take the fleet in the direction of Bakura, which wasn't a good option, either. Upon reaching Geonosis, Admiral Nek Bwua'tu had learned that the Nephilim had attacked Bakura. The world's small fleet of Star Destroyers had been caught completely off guard, as they lacked the proper sensor equipment to detect the quasi-stealth vessels.

A second message had come shortly thereafter from the ground resistance that had formed on the surface of Bakura. The Nephilim had sent down a massive occupation force. According to the officer who sent the message, the Dark Ones seemed intent on keeping as many people alive as possible. And, given Bakura's proximity to the Ssi-Ruuvi Imperium...

Out of the two options, the second was less vac-brained. And so, after some nerve-wracking finagling, in which several more ships were lost, the Galactic Alliance/Silentium/Geonosian fleet finally escaped from Geonosis' gravity well, and vanished into the relative safety of hyperspace.

**Author's note: I expect there to be three or four more chapters to this, then I'll be working on Dark Nest IV: Slave Nest. I hope you like my work so far. I apologize to any Benstara fans, but after various previous events, both in my work and canon, I just didn't see how it could work.**


	16. Chapter 16

_Eviscerator_

Seff remained silent, in copilot's seat, as the heavily modified YT-4900 freighter plunged through the empty gray abyss of hyperspace. The loss the former Jedi, but not yet Sith, had suffered some time before coming to Korriban had started him on the path to the dark side. But that sort of thing wasn't always enough to keep one on the path. It helped if the individual had a sort of anchor. Which, in this case, had been Vestara Khai. Seff had quickly developed some strong feelings for her. Perhaps, Seff was merely trying to fill that void, that gaping wound in the Force, within him. Or, his feelings for Vestara may have run on a deeper level.

Regardless, Darth Krayt knew that the younger man had loved Vestara in some capacity. Yes, it was unusual for love to be the thing which anchored one to the dark side, but it happened. But with Darth Nefaria gone, something else would be required. Hatred. And Krayt would be the one to cultivate that fire.

"You should've let me kill him," Seff commented. "It would've been a serious blow to the Jedi. Isn't that what you people want? It would've wrecked Luke Skywalker. He already lost his wife to his own nephew, who then had to be killed by his sister. And unless Skywalker decided to have another kid..."

"The Nephilim are a greater threat than the Jedi, at the moment," Krayt said. "The Jedi are barely working with us as it is. If we kill their leader's son, they might not work with us at all."

"He murdered her," Seff persisted. Ben Skywalker had targeted Vestara, the woman he'd claimed to love, specifically, out of malicious intent. Very Sith-like. The Jedi claimed to be morally superior to the Sith, but they were not. They could be just as depraved and murderous.

"Jedi are not without their flaws," Krayt agreed.

"The same could be said of the Sith," Seff countered.

"Fair enough," Darth Krayt allowed. "I was once a Jedi." Seff turned toward the Sith Lord, slightly surprised. Krayt did not care to talk about his past, but sometimes one had to endure some discomfort for the greater good.

"My name was A'Sharad Hett," he continued. "My father was murdered by a Jedi assassin named Aura Sing. I later fought against Obi-Wan Kenobi. He defeated me and forced me into exile. Then, a few decades later, I was captured and tortured by the Vong. Things would have been much different had the Sith led the charge against them. The Sith are not afraid to do what is necessary, no matter how ugly it may. And perhaps some of what we do is evil; we are willing to become corrupt ourselves for the greater good."

"So, the Jedi value their own morality too much to sacrifice it."

Krayt nodded. "Sometimes, in order to fight a monster you must become one yourself."

"You've certainly got that covered," Seff commented wryly, eliciting a glare from the Sith Lord.

#

_Turk Brand_

"I killed her," Ben said. "I just… pulled that lightsaber out of her hand… and the Nephs finished her off."

Jysella, who was slightly taller than him, put an arm around his shoulders. He briefly considered shrugging her arm off, but decided against it. It was nice to have her arm around him. "Did you actually feel her die?" she asked.

"Well, no. But there's no way she could've... I should've just left her alone."

"And then what?" Jysella asked. "Would she stop murdering people?"

Ben sighed. "Of course not. Because that's what she is. A murderer. I should hate her. But I don't. I can't."

Jysella gently squeezed his hand. "If you can love someone so unconditionally..."

"Yeah, I know. It's a good thing. Well, it sure doesn't... Did I do the right thing?"

Jysella was silent a moment. "I can't tell you... I guess that depends on why you did it."

"I'm a horrible person," Ben said.

"We all make mistakes, Ben."

"I murdered her," Ben said. "That's not a 'mistake'."

Jysella suddenly kissed him. She pulled away a second later, surprised by herself. "I'm s-sorry," she stammered, her facing starting to turn red. "I don't know what-"

"Don't worry about it," Ben said with a sigh. "We all make..." He trailed off when he saw Jysella glaring at him.

"You're not making this any less awkward, you know."

"I guess not," Ben agreed. He stood up, and tapped the silver lightsaber hanging from his belt. "I have to go return this to Thrace."

#

Ben was walking over to the pilots' lounge when Jysella's brother Valin came around the corner. "Hey, Ben," he said.

"Uh, hi," Ben said, rather awkwardly.

"What have you been up to," the older Jedi asked in mock suspicion.

"Um, about five four."

"Ha, ha, ha. You're hilarious," Valin said dryly. "What's going on?"

"Nothing," Ben said.

"Nothing?" Valin repeated, clearly unconvinced. "You look like a tomato, kid."

"It's..." Ben sighed. "Fine. I kissed Jysella," he said, a bit flustered.

Valin just stood there, impassive.

"Well, uh, it was more like she kissed me."

Valin placed a hand on Ben's shoulder. "Hey, relax. If you two like each other-"

"We don't." Ben said sharply, shaking the older man's hand from his shoulder. "It was just one of those things. Things are very stressful right now. And... I have to go talk to Thrace," he said, continuing toward the pilots' lounge. It was the perfect excuse for dropping the previous subject.

#

"I know," Thrace said, before Allana had a chance to say anything, "it wasn't good, back there."

"No, it wasn't," she agreed.

"I hated cutting you off from me like that but... I don't want my darkness to corrupt you."

"I know, and I appreciate it," Allana gently squeezed Thrace's hand. "But I'd hate for you to fall to the dark side because you were shutting me out. I can't lose you."

"You don't I think I can handle it myself," Thrace said, his voice wavering such a tiny bit that Allana could barely pick up on it. The fear she felt from him in the Force was just as subtle, and that was _with_ the powerful Force bond they shared. How much was he truly hiding from her?

"Then we'll just have to handle it, together." She stood up from the couch and hugged him. "I'm going to make myself some tea."

"Have fun," Thrace said, wanting some levity. He watched Allana walk to the far side of the room to make her tea. Thrace knew she was right, that he couldn't handle the darkness on his own. His father Mitth'ord'envar had struggled with the darkness, and had barely been saved from it. Thrace feared that his darkness might be worse. But how much worse, he could not say.

Thrace wanted to believe that Allana could save him. He'd have to truly let her in, as he'd never let anyone in before. But what if not even she could save him? And worse, what if this darkness, this cursed disease, infected her? Turned her to the dark side. If Allana could not deny the feelings Thrace knew she had for him… It would be up to Thrace to push her away. And if he fell to the dark side… then at least he wouldn't take her with him.

"There you are," Ben said, his voice seeming to cut through the darkness of Thrace's morbid wallowing.

"We already talked about it," the Chiss Jedi said, glancing back at Allana.

"Huh?"

"That dark side stuff I pulled," Thrace said.

"Okay," Ben said, sounding as though he had a full grown bantha sitting on his shoulders.

"Something happen to you back there, too?"

Ben shrugged. "Not me. Vestara," he said, as though it had been his fault. Thrace could not find it in himself to say he was sorry; it would have been rubbish anyway. He pulled a cylindrical silver object from his belt, tossed it to Thrace. The Chiss Jedi examined it a few moments before standing up and pressing down on the activation switch. A crimson shaft of light snap-hissed to life. Thrace telekinetically turned the handle, prompting the weapon to heighten its pitch, and the blade to elongate and lighten to silver. It was certainly his father's lightsaber, stolen by Vestara Khai.

"Thanks," Thrace said. He didn't ask Ben how he'd gotten it back, but he had an idea what had happened. Had his own darkness somehow have gotten to Ben?

** A bit short, I know. The section I planned on adding to the end of this will fit better with chapter 17. There will probably be around three more chapters (17-19), and then I expect to be working more seriously on Dark Nest IV: Slave Nest.**

**I'd appreciate your thoughts on this chapter, and the story as a whole. And if you have any ideas for story elements, let me know. They might help.**


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Geonosis

It had been nearly a day since Darth Plagueis' Geonosian fleet and Admiral Nek Bwua'tu's Galactic Alliance fleet had been forced to abandon Geonosis in a failed bid to hold the world. Many of their ships had been destroyed or disabled by the Nephilim/Abominor forces that were currently in possession of Geonosis. The mostly mechanical beings had taken great care not to damage these ships more than necessary.

The scene of the battle had become a massive chop shop of sorts. Vessels from both sides floated dead or nearly dead. Those ships which were unsalvageable were cannibalized, their corpses used to restore other ships to full life.

In many cases vessels were repaired with components from other types of ships. And there were several instances in which different types of ships were welded together. Sections of hull plating, either found floating as debris or from vessels that had been scrapped, were placed over many of these gaps.

From such a scale this operation would have appeared to be a gross oversimplification. One bloody well could not expect such crude reparations to result in functioning ships. Not with all the rewiring that would need to be done. Or the reprogramming of highly incompatible systems.

Which would have been the case had it not been for the Abominors' incredible abilities of self repair. With help from incredibly advanced nanites, these living droids could heal like flesh and could even add components to their bodies. The nanites could link together to form wires or cables, and could also pull small pieces of armor plating together. They were even better suited to repair work on a microscopic level, enabling them to quickly repair computer systems. The highly complex code necessary for all these operations lent itself quite well to programming vastly different systems to function as one integrated unit. With the help of their cobbled together vessels, the Abominor were able to apply this ability on a truly massive scale.

Nephilim vessels either patrolled the area or assisted the Abominor in their repairs. The Dark Ones had also sent a substantial ground force to oversee the operation of the droid manufacturing plant on the surface of Geonosis. The minor damage had quickly been repaired and the highly automated factory now hummed like a living being as it churned out massive quantities of war droids, mostly Shadow TIEs, Execekas, and Decimekas. There were also some Hailfire droids and a few Scorpenek Annihilator droids.

#

Bakura

E'thinaa followed the Nephilim foot soldiers into the warehouse. Only minutes ago it had served as a base of operations for a group of resistance fighters. Most of them were dead now, having killed themselves so that they would not be enteched. The ersatz Ssi-Ruuk would have done the same. To be trapped in a machine. To exist, but no longer live. It was the ultimate torment.

A number of resistance fighters had been injured or rendered unconscious, by the Ssi-Ruuvi paddle beamers or calculated blows to the head, so that they could not take their own lives. The Dark Ones begin placing entechment crowns on peoples' heads.

E'thinaa felt sick as he watched this. While these people were infidels for their idolatry with machinery, he still pitied them. Just killing these Bakurans would have been punishment enough, but this... It was just wrong. These vile Dark Ones, these demons, were shaping these unfortunate beings into unliving abominations like themselves.

The Yuuzhan Vong spy longed for Yun Yuuzhan to arrive, to set things right. E'thinaa hoped it was soon. It was only a matter of time before he was offered the opportunity to become enteched. To be set free, as the Ssi-Ruu said. He would have to go into hiding.

#

_Turk Brand_

"The best of both worlds, so to speak," Grand Master Luke Skywalker continued. "Whatever the Dark Ones use seems to preserve life forces extremely well. And while the Ssi-Ruu don't seem able to do that, they are able to use life forces as a power source."

"And the Nephilim have also aligned with Abominor," stated the Other, through the floating tentacle he'd sent. "They possess a remarkable ability for self repair."

"So that's why they tried to keep our ships intact," Corran Horn reasoned. "They'll fix them up and use them against us."

Luke nodded. "That, and to keep people alive for entechment."

Admiral Bwua'tu frowned. "That would go a long way toward building their forces back up. And we're already losing this dang fight. We need to find a way to disrupt some of their operations."

Luke nodded his head. The Jedi Master seemed to be mulling something over. "There may be something we can do," he said with a sigh. "Several years ago I was able to use the Force to cloak the _Jade Shadow_. Basically overlaying images of the surrounding starfield onto the hull. If we could... amplify this effect, perhaps we'd able to sneak a larger ship into Bakuran space. And take out some of their entechment facilities."

Corran frowned. "The moment we open fire, the Nephs'll know exactly where we are. They'll be on us like a pack of vornskrs."

"Not if they suspect a trap," Admiral Bwua'tu countered. "They won't know how many ships we actually have. That could buy us some time to escape."

"Okay," Corran said."But how would we amplify this cloaking ability?" he asked, knowing he wasn't going to like the answer.

"The Sith. Krayt or Plagueis, probably. Maybe both," Luke said.

"I don't like this at all." Corran protested. "The moment the Nephs find us, there won't be any need for the cloak. The Sith won't have any reason not to kill you."

"The cloak could still aid our escape," Bwua'tu countered. "If the Dark Ones don't know exactly what type of ship we have it could be harder for them to disable it."

Luke nodded. "The Sith won't try to kill me as long as they believe they need me."

Corran frowned. "But once we escape..."

"I know," Luke said. "We'll just have to cross that hyperlane when we get to it."

"You're starting to sound like Han," Corran complained.

Luke smiled in amusement before his expression turned more serious. "It's better than doing nothing. And the Jedi Order can go on without me, now."

"You're no longer the Sith's primary target," Bwua'tu agreed.

"True," Luke said. "It's up to Ben to continue the Skywalker line. And the Sith want to get rid of Allana, too."

#

"If you don't come back," Ben said, "I'm gonna kill you."

Luke laughed. His expression turned more serious. He'd known something was bothering his son on his way to that meeting Admiral Bwua'tu had called. "Are you okay, Ben?"

"Probably not," Ben responded, looking at the floor. "I disarmed Vestara, and the Nephs got her. Seff tried to kill me."

"But he obviously didn't."

Ben sighed. "Krayt stopped him."

Luke raised an eyebrow in moderate surprise. "I'll have to thank him."

"If the Sith are so worried about the Nephilim, and their friends, that they want me around, they probably won't go after you."

Luke frowned. "I hope so. But if they feel I'm more of a threat, they might have kept you alive so they could get to me."

#

_Mon Mothma_

"And you must be Darth Plagueis," Luke Skywalker said to the armored man standing beside Darth Krayt. The Jedi Master suppressed a shudder as he looked at Darth Plagueis for the first time. The Sith Lord was neither dead nor alive, but somewhere in between. The pale armor this dark man wore gave the undead Sith Lord a crustacean-like appearance. Much of this exoskeleton of sorts was covered in broad points that somewhat resembled melting pyramids. The knuckles and multiple foot segments ended in curved, claw-like spikes. And even longer, sword-like spikes came from the elbows and knees.

But, far more unnerving was the face which should have been there but was not. Underneath Darth Plagueis' armor was utter darkness. Luke had not expected the dark man to be so… blasted literal.

Unfortunately, Krayt and this dark man would vital if an entire Star Destroyer was going to be made invisible with the Force.

"Yes," Plagueis responded to Luke's statement.

Luke looked back at Darth Krayt. "My son told me you saved his life."

Krayt nodded. "Nothing personal. He's simply an asset against the Dark Ones."

"Well, whatever the reason, thank you."

#

"Seff," Tahiri said sadly. "What happened to you?"

"I saw the truth. The Jedi don't have what it takes to save the galaxy. The Sith have a plan."

"They're murderers, Seff. Look what Krayt did to all those refugees-"

"And you saw how effective that was. And if being a murderer is what it takes to win-"

"Then we don't deserve to win," Tahiri interrupted.

"Maybe we don't, then. But the Nephs deserve to win even less."

Tahiri remained silent a moment. Seff was right, and she fumed at it. But he was also so tragically wrong. "If Andromeda-"

"She's not here. She's gone. Forever. So what does it bloody matter!"

Tahiri turned to walk away, but stopped. She had to save him. She couldn't let him fall to the dark side. She turned back around. "Seff, you know it will never work, a war to end all wars. There could be peace for a time. But it won't last. Not forever, anyway."

"You're wrong," Seff said softly. "If the Sith are strong enough, if we are united, then there is hope. And we have a leader now. To unite us and keep us-"

"No, Seff. You know this is wrong. Darth Plagueis won't save the galaxy. He's the dark man, for Force sake! He'll doom the entire galaxy if he isn't…"

Seff held up a hand. "I wish you could see the truth, Tahiri. I don't want to lose you."

"Well, you already have," she said angrily.

Seff could hear Tahiri start to sob as she turned away. For her to suffer like this was a dagger to his heart. He would never have her love. There was no point in loving someone. Andromeda had been taken from him. And then Vestara. Seff's love for them had caused him nothing but agony.

He would embrace his growing hatred. Hatred would be his mistress.


	18. Chapter 18

_Mon Mothma_

Jedi Grand Master Luke Skywalker could feel the mix of apprehension and excitement building as the _Mon Mothma_ hurtled through the mottled gray expanse of hyperspace, drawing ever nearer to the world of Bakura.

Luke could feel a near suffocating darkness seep into his mind as he joined into a Force meld with Darths Plagueis and Krayt. It took a moment for the link to solidify, and then, aided by _Ship_, the trio reached out toward the couple hundred Made Jedi and several dozen Sith Sabers-which now, sadly included Seff Hellin-aboard the _Mon Mothma_. A vortex of calm fury soon seemed to be swirling within _Ship_ as the battle meditation gained strength.

Doing his best to ignore the dark, but controlled, emotions wafting off of the Sith Lords sitting nearby, Luke Skywalker brought his attention to the three dimensional hologram of the _Mon Mothma_ floating a couple feet above a small projector sitting in the middle of the Sith Meditation Sphere.

And then the hologram was the actual _Mon Mothma_, and that lone Star Destroyer was the entirety of the universe.

"Proceed," Darth Plagueis suddenly mumbled.

Luke let his attention drift just enough to feel the _Mon Mothma_ enter realspace. And then, still gazing at the small hologram, he reached out toward the light being cast by so many stars. Innumerable bright pinpricks seemed to materialize on a now matte black monolith, as the light side of the Force fell upon him like a waterfall. The light side burned through his mind, washing away much of the foul darkness within.

#

Thrace could still feel Darth Plagueis' nauseating darkness, hanging about him like a storm cloud. But thanks to the Force meld he'd created Saba Sebatyne and Tahiri Veila, it was somewhat muted. This evil would have been even further removed had Allana been here with him. The love they shared would have made this Force meld so much more powerful. But it would have been far too risky to bring her along. The Sith would wait until the mission had been accomplished to their satisfaction, and then would do everything in their power to kill the future Queen of the Jedi. That could potentially doom the entire Jedi Order.

With their three minds now one, the three Jedi had Thrace's ability to sense the flow of energy, or electricity, and the female Jedis' ability to sense the flow of life. They could soon feel thousands of souls being plundered from their own bodies, and whisked away to prisons of circuitry, alloy, and plastic, upon shafts of verdant fire. Nephilim and Ssi-Ruu vessels floating in orbit around Bakura began to _glow_ with these siphoned lives.

The three Jedi began to gently exert their compound mind upon those of the gunnery crew, helping them to accurately target the entechment beamers. The task was made more difficult by the fact that these individuals were not Force users. But Luke Skywalker and the two Sith Lords needed as many Force users as possible for their own task.

#

Luke could feel thousands of lives being snuffed out as the _Mon Mothma's_ turbolaser batteries began bleeding red death down upon the world of Bakura. Those who were being enteched were, in a sense, dead already. They would have no semblance of free will once their souls were assimilated into machines. But among the others there would be thousands, perhaps millions of casualties before this sordid thing was over. Was it right, ending so many lives like this? Even if this was for the greater good, as the heavily tattooed Darth Krayt had said, it was still murder.

But Luke didn't see any alternative.

A warning burned up from Luke's subconscious a second or so before the _Mon Mothma_ began shaking under enemy fire. Of course everyone had known the Nephilim would assume there was a cloaked vessel behind the red turbolaser fire. Luke could feel the oppressively dark presences of the Nephilim carrier ships as they cautiously approached the Star Destroyer. The Dark Ones clearly suspected there was more than just one cloaked ship. It would have been foolish of them not to. And it would also be foolish to have just one cloaked ship. But, as Han had said a while earlier, 'sometimes to fight an enemy that's smarter than you, you have to be an idiot'.

#

The Sith would wait until the mission had been accomplished to their satisfaction, and then would do everything in their power to kill... Luke Skywalker! The Jedi Grand Master was trapped inside that ghastly flying eyeball. There was no way he could take on both Plagueis and Krayt. The two Sith would murder Luke, which would automatically bring down the cloak, the _Mon Mothma_ would quickly be disabled, and they would escape aboard _Ship_. And given how much Plagueis and Krayt had been practicing the enhanced cloaking technique, with Luke before this mission, they could very well have become proficient enough to help the Meditation Sphere cloak itself.

There were several dozen StealthXs and dagger shaped Sith fighters on board the _Mon Mothma_, but that would still leave most of the people stranded. And there was no telling how many of the fighters would make it out of this. Almost everyone on this ship was going to die.

Thrace had to do something. Had to somehow thwart the Siths' plans. If Thrace could get them killed it would be a massive blow to the Sith. Trillions of lives might be saved.

Thrace could feel these thoughts longing to leak out. He grabbed onto to them, to hold them inside.

Using a part of his mind he'd kept to himself, and out of the Force meld, he reached outward, to the hull of the _Mon Mothma_. To the uncountable pinpoints of light dotting the jet black monolith of the Star Destroyer.

Thrace pulled that auxiliary part of his mind inward slightly, to the net of Force energy sustaining the illusion. It was fragile, like a glass vase. Oh, how easily it could break. The Chiss Jedi imagined water being poured into this vase. And then the water began to expand as it turned to ice. Hairline fractures began forming as the delicate vase fought a losing battle against the growing turmoil within. The shock waves spread like a fire, and the vase shattered in an explosion of glass.

#

Luke frowned as the images of the starfield on the hologram of the _Mon Mothma_ became a mess of static, and then evaporated. Leaving a gray Star Destroyer in its wake.

"The cloak's down," Darth Krayt snarled, as the _Mon Mothma_ suddenly shook violently and an alarm began wailing.

Even if the cloak could be restored, it would be completely useless now. And so Krayt and Plagueis had no reason to... Luke searched out his inner being, for any empty spaces. He called upon the Force, letting it flow into these gaps. He 'squeezed' the Force energy, increasing its density, creating even more spaces for the Force to fill. The Jedi Master could feel himself becoming saturated, until the Force was almost dripping off of him like the sweat that already was. Luke focused the massive amount of energy he'd gathered toward the mind of the Sith Meditation Sphere. _OPEN! _

Luke could feel _Ship's_ boarding ramp begin to lower. He grabbed onto Darth Krayt with the Force and slammed him into Darth Plagueis. The two were on their feet a split second later, but by then Luke was coming to an awkward landing on the flight deck of the _Mon Mothma_. Of course that would do nothing to protect him from the giant flying eyeball that was glaring at him an instant later.

And yet, a second later Luke was still alive. The answer was apparent when he extended his mind outward and felt a swarm of life presences. Some of these existed in the Force, but most in the Anti-Force, the abominable mockery of the former.

The Nephilim didn't want to destroy the _Mon Mothma_, they wanted to take her. Because they thought they might be able to reverse engineer the cloaking technology they must have believed was on board the Star Destroyer. And they'd certainly want to entech the survivors. Especially if some of those survivors were Force users.

Luke scrambled over and into the nearest StealthX as he felt several Nephilim Razors approach the hangar bay. The Jedi Master glimpsed other people, Made Jedi and Sith Sabers, hopping into the other StealthXs and Sith fighters. _Ship_ and the fighters opened fire as the Razors began ripping through the massive hangar bay doors, almost as though they were made of cardboard. Air screamed out into space for a split second before the magcon field went up. The hangar bay became a maelstrom of red and silver white fire. Two StealthXs and a Sith fighter were split in two as Razors sliced into them; their pilots died instantly.

The Sith Meditation Sphere fired a large metal ball out through the magcon field, and into the void where it slammed into, and destroyed, an incoming Nephilim dropship. But it wouldn't be long before another one took its place.

#

Tahiri led Thrace and Saba into one of the hangar bays to find that its doors had been shredded, and that the magcon field had gone up. Seff and a number of Made Jedi and Sith Sabers were already engaged in a fierce battle with a group of Nephilim foot soldiers. A number of these Dark Ones had paddle beamers. Those weapons were difficult to deflect as their beams had a nasty tendency of bending. The Nephilim foot soldiers were taking full advantage of this effect by aiming their paddle beamers directly at the lightsabers, causing the beams to bounce around in hard-to-predict paths.

A number of people had already succumbed to this tactic and were being dragged or carried to a waiting troop transport. Tahiri saw Seff clench his wrist, and felt one of those life forces wink out. Several Sith Sabers caught on and began following suit. Though it sickened her, Tahiri couldn't be angry with them. She'd want someone to do the same for her.

Tahiri felt her brainstem wailing at her and put up a shield of Force energy. The protective dome began rippling angrily, less than a second later, as a hail of silver white energy crashed into it. The three Jedi pushed forward, against the onslaught, to reinforce Seff and his group.

#

Luke frowned as he watched another dropship approach the hangar. He glanced over at _Ship_. The ghastly thing was already almost overwhelmed. The Jedi Master glanced back at the growing enemy shape, and sighed. He directed a powerful blast of Force energy at the StealthX's canopy, popping it off. Luke leapt out of the stealth X-wing and used the Force to cushion a fall which would have otherwise cracked a few ribs at the very least.

Visualizing the control stick, he pulled backward, sending the StealthX through the magcon field and crashing into the troop transport. The resulting explosion sent shrapnel through the energy field and into the hangar bay.

Darth Plagueis was a blur as he took down the Dark Ones. Black tongues of dark side energy seemed to eat right through them, while his crimson lightsaber hacked away with disturbing violence.

Krayt, though, was still in the Meditation Sphere. Luke reached out to the tattooed Sith Lord; the man was drawing very heavily on the dark side. It would have been hard for him to fight off the Nephilim in that state. What in the Void was he doing?

#

Thrace looked at the troop transport. The Chiss Jedi reached out toward the dropship, and felt its control center. He focused a small amount of anger on it. Something inside the troop transport started to hiss and pop, throwing up a shower of sparks, and acrid smoke.

Thrace batted aside silver white enemy fire with his saberstaff and the blue lightsaber blade being emitted by his prosthetic left arm as he led the other Jedi and Seff, his former mentor, to the dropship. Seff instinctively dove to the ground as several orbs of silver white energy came shrieking his way. The current Sith Saber came back up on his feet to find a Dark One leveling a paddlebeamer at him. Seff reached out in the Force, yanking the stun weapon from his opponent's grasp.

Seff could sense other Nephilim beginning to surround him. There was nowhere to go. And so he ran, head on toward the profanity standing before him. He leapt into the air and deactivated his lightsaber. Once he was completely upside down, he reactivated his weapon, sending a shaft of light to impale his opponent's head.

Seff twisted around as he landed behind the falling Dark One, and repeated a strange word he'd heard Vestara use when he found himself even further away from the troop transport. The abominations were herding him away from salvation.

He allowed this realization to ignite his wrath. And the raw power of the dark side of the Force began to burn within him. The Sith Saber channeled much of this energy into his left arm. Azure fire exploded from his fingertips and hammered into one of the Dark Ones.

#

Tahiri spun around as she made it into the troop transport. Where was… She saw Seff several meters away, battling furiously against a pair of Nephilim. His lightsaber flashed almost like lightning as he fought back their blows. Being in such close proximity to the former Jedi, the Dark Ones would not be able to effectively use their energy weapons. But that unfortunately meant that they were almost on top of him.

If she didn't do something, Seff was going to die. But what could she do? If she jumped out of the dropship, to run to Seff's aid, she'd probably just get herself killed. And that wouldn't help anyone.

Tahiri saw a third Dark soldier creeping up behind Seff, and realized it was a moot point. He tried to slash his blade at the Dark One. His new opponent simply leapt out of the way. Seff returned his full attention to his other two opponents, and somehow managed to behead one of them.

Tahiri frowned; it seemed far too… She screamed as the other Dark One plunged its blade into Seff's chest. It had been a setup, the first Nephilim having sacrificed itself so that its comrade could kill him.

#

Luke Skywalker watched Plagueis leap back into the Sith Meditation Sphere and groaned. With all the StealthXs and Sith fighters either occupied or too mangled to fly the hideous Sith ship was his only way out. And the two Sith on board could easily kill him. But at least then he wouldn't be enteched.

Luke suddenly felt a surge of dark side energy, and turned to see a Sith Saber clenching her fist. He suddenly felt an empty spot in the Force. The Jedi Master heard the shrill whine of repulsors; he glance in the sound's direction to see a StealthX hovering a meter or so above the flight deck.

That Sith girl had just murdered that pilot so that she could get a ride off the doomed _Mon Mothma_. Luke brought his attention back to her, and Force threw her backward a few meters. He ran over to the StealthX. Its on board astromech, knowing the pilot was dead, obediently popped open the canopy. Luke used the Force to pull the dead man out of the ship. Fortunately, in his haste the man had either neglected or forgotten to strap himself in, and so was pulled out with little difficulty. Luke felt lousy, just dropping the man on the flight deck. But the man was already dead; there was no sense in Luke dying, too. He'd wanted a ride out, but not like this.

#

Darth Krayt could feel a massive number of enteched life presences approaching. He reached out to them, as though to form a battle meditation. And then, like a bursting dam, he let loose. Aided by _Ship_ and Plagueis, the human Sith Lord pumped massive quantities of dark side energy into these life presences.

#

Luke's right temple began throbbing as he struggled to hold up the Force illusion keeping his StealthX invisible. Though it was a stealth craft, he did not want to take chances. If Alliance vessels could detect them, the Nephilim would certainly be able... Enteched life forces all around suddenly seemed to become overloaded, and then vanished. He checked the sensor screen. A few dozen Dark ships had sustained serious damage, as he had a great many Razors. So that's what Krayt had been doing.

Luke Skywalker winced as an invisible hammer slammed into his head. His vision was obscured by tiny points of light, and he feared that he might black out before the StealthX reached the relative safety of hyperspace. The fighter suddenly shook as it sustained a hit, and Luke knew he'd just bungled the blasted Force illusion. He checked the diagnostics display; the lower starboard s-foil, along with its engine, were completely gone.

And then the stars elongated. Luke was suddenly a deflating balloon. He let the illusion disintegrate, leaned back in his seat, and closed his eyes.

He groaned, with his entire being, as a wave of guilt swept over him. He had just participated in the massed murder of millions. He tried to tell himself that it had been for the greater good. That in the long run, what he'd done would actually save lives. And yet he felt like a Sith.

And that Sith Saber. Yes, she'd committed murder. But she'd just been a frightened kid who didn't want to die, or be enteched. She hadn't seen any other way out.

What Luke had done to her hadn't been much different. He'd just seen her as an obstacle. And in his anger, had thrown her out of the way so that he could live. Unless Ship had stopped by to pick her up, she'd be dead, or... One of the Sith would certainly have made sure that if she wasn't rescued, she'd at least be killed so that she couldn't be enteched.


	19. Chapter 19

_Turk Brand_

Ben Skywalker arrived on the flight deck to find Thrace and Tahiri following Jedi Master Saba Sebatyne out of a 'borrowed' Nephilim dropship. Tahiri was visibly upset, so something had clearly gone wrong. Ben felt his blood go cold. Had something happened to his father? No, he would've felt it. Wouldn't he?

"We lozst the _Mon Mothma_," Saba said.

That was certainly bad news. Hundreds of people had been aboard. But Ben couldn't think about that now. "What about..." he was afraid to ask.

"Your father?" Saba guessed. "We don't know. He wazs not aboard _Zship_ when we left."

Ben sighed. "So maybe he got a ride," he said mostly to reassure himself. He turned toward to Tahiri.

"Seff," she said.

Ben hugged her. "I'm sorry. So what happ..." He lost his train of thought as Thrace suddenly shouted something, and a horrendous screeching sound came to life.

"Bloody distress beacon," the Chiss Jedi muttered, after the Nephilim drop ship had passed through the magcon field. "Just came on."

Ben shook his head. The Nephilim had let Saba and the two Jedi Knights take the shuttle so that they could follow it to the fleet. The three Jedi hadn't been given a choice; someone had to tell Bwua'tu's fleet what had happened.

The fleet couldn't stay here. They might have just minutes left to be underway. Ben's father would arrive to find the fleet gone. Of course, the fleet wouldn't do anyone much good if it was destroyed.

Ben snatched up his comlink, and gave Admiral Bwua'tu rundown of the immediate situation. Seconds later the entire fleet was in hyperspace. Ben replaced his comlink, and Force nudged the three other Jedi to follow him. "Bwua'tu wants us to meet him and Allana in Ops."

#

"The Sith Lords would've been ready to get out of there the instant they killed Luke," Thrace continued. "And if they had learned enough from him, they'd be able to cloak _Ship_. But if the cloak went down when they weren't expecting it, maybe they wouldn't be able to get out before the _Mothma_ was destroyed. Sure, they'd be able to help get rid of the Dark Ones. But what then?"

"That makes sense," Admiral Bwua'tu said, nodding. "And if Master Skywalker's still alive, he'll be able to help fight the Nephs later on. But if you were wrong about this..."

Thrace sighed. "Then I made a bloody awful mess of things." He frowned; the admiral seemed to expect more of a response. "Disabling the cloak forced the Mon _Mothma_ to remain at Bakura longer, providing the Sith Lords more time to figure out how to... do whatever it is they did to the enteched life forces."

Bwua'tu nodded in approval. "The Dark Ones might want to hold off on enteching people for a while. And their forces at Bakura took quite a hit." The admiral was silent a few seconds as he took a sip of his caf. "In regards to that distress signal, you'll be glad to know that it doesn't really change anything. The fleet was about to head out, anyway. I was speaking with Fleet Commander Formbi and Moff Gatterweld when you arrived."

A massive Hutt Thrace had not been fully aware of suddenly slithered off his shoulders at the news that his grandfather was still alive.

"Gatterweld led a fleet to the Unknown Regions to reinforce Formbi's forces," Bwua'tu went on. "Their combined fleet nearly wiped out the Dark ships there after Andromeda uploaded that virus. They'd have contacted us sooner, but they didn't want the Nephs to find them prematurely. They'll be joining up with our fleet and the forces from the Corellian system at Geonosis."

"We're going to try to retake Geonozsizs?" Saba asked. "That szeemz..."

"Foolish," Bwua'tu said.

"Which izs why it may not be szo foolizsh," Saba said. "The Dark Onezs may not be expecting szuch a recklezs move."

Admiral Bwua'tu nodded. "We were hoping Plagueis and Krayt would have returned so that they could help coordinate our forces. But since they are not here, and may not be be coming, we may have to rely on Blight. Lecersen says that Blight can coordinate the entire combined fleet."

"But you don't believe him," Allana reasoned, sensing the admiral's suspicion.

Bwua'tu shook his head. "Plagueis and Krayt may stay out of this to force you and Thrace to help Blight coordinate the fleet."

"Which would probably kill us," Allana said glumly. "And if I escaped... with Thrace, assuming it would even be possible for anyone to escape, we certainly would not be able to regain Geonosis."

"Is this even possible?" Thrace asked.

Bwua'tu frowned. "Maybe not. But I believe it's the best chance we've got."

Thrace frowned. "And if this all goes wrong? Won't the Abominor take what's left of our ships?"

"You've played parasite chess," the admiral said.

Thrace frowned; he rather hated that variation of chess. "Sometimes one must eliminate one's own pieces to prevent one's opponent from stealing them."

Bwua'tu nodded. "Similar to what I did when Abeloth tried to steal some of our ships a couple years ago. I spoke to the Other recently. If it comes to it the Silentium will help us destroy our own ships. The Other assures us there will be almost nothing left for the Abominor to salvage."

Allana felt like a deflated balloon. "So we're going to make sure that if they win that they don't win by as much."

"Yes."

#

More thoughts than Thrace could keep track of sped through his mind as Allana walked over to him. "You want to talk to me about something," she said.

The young man nodded. "You know I've been concerned about my darkness corrupting you. Which is why I've sort of been keeping you at a distance."

Allana nodded. Though she didn't believe that his darkness would drag her down. And she had hope that Thrace could be saved.

"I don't think we're going to survive this upcoming battle," Thrace went on.

"Probably not," Allana agreed.

Thrace nodded. "We'll be dead long before my darkness can corrupt you, I imagine. So... Well you know how I feel about you." He sighed and reached into his pocket, and seemed to be fumbling with something. Allana saw a shining object fall toward the floor. Her hand instinctively shot out and grabbed it before it landed. "Well, I sort of scuttled that a bit," Thrace said awkwardly.

Allana opened her hand, revealing a copper colored band. Set in the middle was a small green with gem, with smaller red ones on either side. "If we're going to do this..."

"We have to do it right now-ish."

#

Hyperspace

Luke Skywalker looked at the water bottle, and then at the chronometer. Just under seven hours until he reentered realspace. He lifted the bottle toward his mouth; he might as well finish-

He nearly dropped the bottle as an image of a familiar desert world flashed through his mind. Geonosis, the current Nephilim/Abominor stronghold. That would be suicide. But then why was the Force showing this-

The image flashed through his mind again, so vividly that for a moment he almost thought he was on Geonosis, and he suddenly needed to go there as much as he needed to draw his next breath. He punched in the coordinates, but didn't hit the execute key. Someone needed to tell the Alliance fleet what had happened at Bakura.

Luke knew Krayt and Plagueis had survived, but he couldn't trust those two dianogas to report back to Bwua'tu and Kre'fey's fleet. Not that the Sith Lords would even tell the truth about what had happened.

The only other person Luke was confident knew just what had happened was Thrace. But the Jedi Master had no idea if the young man had survived. The Chiss Jedi had been in the _Mon Mothma's_ main port hangar bay, along with Tahiri, Saba, and Seff. While Luke and the two Sith Lords had been in the starboard hangar.

Luke frowned when the StealthX dropped out of hyperspace several hours later. It was nearly silent in the Force. He could not sense the many life forces and ships of the Alliance fleet. Luke checked the sensors, which confirmed the fleet's absence. Also absent were the significant space debris which would certainly have been created had the Dark Ones attacked.

The fleet was headed to Geonosis. It was the only conclusion that made even the most remote sense. The Nephilim certainly wouldn't let Bwua'tu and Kre'fey's fleet escape to the Corellian system. Which meant the Bothan admirals would attempt to retake Geonosis. And if they were planning on doing that they must have heard from Niathal and Lecersen's forces. And probably Gatterweld's fleet, too. If this plan failed, they were finished.

Luke reached out in the Force, and was not the least bit surprised not to sense Krayt or Plagueis. There were, however, a couple dozen other pilots. Mostly Made Jedi, but also several Sith Sabers. They clearly had not received the same vision Luke had, and thus had not known what to do. It reminded Luke of the ragtag group he'd led against the first Death Star, over fifty years ago.

Once again, the odds were stacked, rather profanely, against the forces of good. _Han never cared about the odds. So why should I? _He looked at his water bottle, glad he hadn't finished it. He'd have to make it last.

#

_Turk Brand_

"I know it's rather sudden," Thrace told Han. "But..."

"It'll be too dang late after we'll all dead," Han finished.

Leia rolled her eyes at her husband's bluntness, but couldn't keep a slight smile from her lips. She turned to her granddaughter and soon to be grandson-in-law. "It would probably make your end of the battle meditation stronger."

Allana nodded. "So less good people will die. Very logical."

"You're turning into me," Thrace commented, with a crooked grin.

"Shut up," Allana said lightly.

**A/N: I expect there to be two more chapters.**


	20. Chapter 20

**_Turk Brand_**

Thrace woke up with Allana's head resting on the left side of his chest, over his heart. He smiled at his wife's sleeping form and kissed her forehead. He lay in their bed, aboard the _Millennium Falcon_, holding her, knowing they had little time remaining in this realm. Even without currently being joined with her in a Force meld, Thrace felt almost as though he and Allana were one being.

Thrace felt somehow lighter, as though some weight had been lifted. He had allowed Allana to see his inner darkness, and she hadn't judged him for it. She'd accepted that it was a part of him. And while Allana couldn't get rid of this darkness, she could save Thrace by helping him to keep it in check. If only Thrace had known all this sooner, he'd have not wasted so much time keeping Allana at a distance.

Thrace felt his wife stirring and wondered if that last thought, somewhat negative in nature, had somehow woken her. "Hi, Button," he said as Allana's eyes fluttered open.

"I wish we could just stay in bed all day," Allana commented, somewhat sadly.

"Yes, that would be lovely," Thrace said, stroking her hair. "A bloody shame we've got to go burn our brains out."

Allana frowned at her husband's bluntness.

"Sorry," Thrace said.

* * *

**Leia held** back a torrent of tears as she and Han hugged Allana and Thrace, probably for the last time. She thought back to the horrible vision she'd had two years before. A Vulture droid had rammed her granddaughter's X-wing, instantly killing her. Leia was going to lose Allana.

"We've faced odds like this before," Han said, in an unsuccessful attempt to cheer everyone up.

"I thought you didn't believe in odds," Leia commented dryly.

A crooked smile came to Han's lips. "I don't. But I do believe in the Solo luck."

Thrace shrugged. "Positive thinking can't hurt, but..." He trailed off upon feeling a sense of disapproval from Allana, and turned toward her, smiling."Ton," he said, finishing her call sign of Button, instead of commenting that positive thinking, though it wouldn't hurt, probably wouldn't help, either.

* * *

**Cilghal and** Tekli met Allana and Thrace on the bridge. Allana glanced at a tray holding several hypo spray vials. "Stim shots," Tekli said. "To keep you going."

Soldiers often kept a few with their gear for use in desperate situations in which they had to remain awake for unnaturally long periods. Stim shots could become addicting if used too frequently. Allana wasn't very concerned about that at the moment.

**_Void Demon_**

Zedekiah Gatterweld grasped the 'family heirloom' resting in his pocket, and could immediately feel the Force coursing through his entire being. He took a moment to center himself, and then focused his consciousness inward to hide himself in the Force. He could not have the Jedi divining his true nature, which was part of the reason he'd gone out of his way to avoid them. Even arranging various crises to demand his attention and keep him busy.

Zeus watched the gray void of hyperspace fracture into innumerable pinpoints of fire. Two other task forces, led by Moff Lecersen and Admiral Bwua'tu were just reentering realspace, as well. All three portions of this armada had relied on Geonosis' gravity well to pull them out of transit. As a result the massive fleet was immediately able to commence fire on the Nephilim/Abominor forces. The Dark Ones responded with their rather bland silver white fire, while their scrapheap allies regurgitated a chaotic cacophony of laser beams and various types of torpedoes and missiles.

Entering a battle against a superior army at such close proximity was a high risk maneuver, the greatly reduced distance providing far less time to reposition one's forces accordingly. Of course the enemy would also have less time to organize their ranks.

Zeus felt a subtle pressure on his mind as Blight reached out to him. With the whereabouts of Darths Plagueis and Krayt still not known, the task of coordinating the effort to retake Geonosis had fallen to Darth Blight.

The Barabel Sith Lord had known he could not manage such a task on his own. And thus had enlisted Gatterweld's help to bolster his abilities. It took a moment for their two minds to line up. It was quite a bit different from creating a battle meditation. Rather than merely controlling many minds, Zeus had to join with another mind, and allow that individual to become an equal. He felt his and Blight's collective mind expanding so that it could guide the thousands of other minds.

It was a bit of a risk that Moff Gatterweld was taking. If the Jedi probed deeply enough they'd be able to sense that someone aboard Zedekiah's flagship, the _Void Demon_, was helping Darth Blight coordinate the fleet. And it would not be a leap in the slightest that it was Gatterweld, especially since that would be the case. Of course the Jedi would likely be too busy fighting for their lives to concern themselves with anything else.

**_Turk Brand_**

Admiral Nek Bwua'tu frowned as the sensors showed the two Nephilim saucers dropping out of hyperspace just outside Geonosis' mass shadow. A Nephilim carrier ship took position behind each of them, setting up a pair of enormous interdiction cones, near the entry vectors used by Admiral Niathal and Moff Gatterweld. And the only escape vector available to Bwua'tu's fleet led toward Bakura.

Going after either of these interdictor arrays was not an option, as it would stretch the Alliance/Imperial forces far too thinly. Knowing that, the Nephilim were unlikely to move their saucers in much closer. Bwua'tu and his allies had known their forces would be trapped so it wasn't that big of a deal.

Floating beside the admiral, as though the artificial gravity had been shut off, was a segmented tentacle with a red eye spot. It had been sent by the Other to relay tactical advice.

The Dark Ones and the Abominor began to push outward from Geonosis, against their attackers in an attempt to break up the already tenuous Alliance/Imperial formation. This would also eventually put them into the firing range of the saucers. And being out of Geonosis' gravity well, the two rings of death could easily escape to hyperspace before sustaining significant damage.

Allana and Thrace could not allow this to happen. They could delay the battle meditation no longer. "See you on the other side, Blue Milk," Allana told her husband.

Thrace couldn't help but smile at the use of his quasi-xenophobic sounding call sign. The Chiss Jedi had just been messing about when he'd come up with the name, years ago, but it had stuck. He gently squeezed his wife's left hand and kissed her.

Thrace and Allana _reached_ out to each other. Becoming lost in one another, melting into one another, until neither knew where one ended and the other began. Their connection was deeper than before, when they'd first joined together in a battle meditation. Of the many ways one could die, this one wasn't too bad.

Admiral Nek Bwua'tu could feel a gentle pressure on his mind as Allana and Thrace's collective mind reached out to him, and thousands of other Galactic Alliance personnel. He then began to feel a connection with the mechanical, yet living Silentium as Allana and Thrace extended the battle meditation to them.

Nek Bwua'tu loathed himself right now. Yes, the two Jedi Knights had volunteered to do this, but the Bothan admiral felt as though he were killing them. And dooming the Jedi Order.

But the Nephilim had to be stopped, even if it meant that Darth Plagueis would claim the Throne of Balance. A galaxy ruled by the Dark Ones would be far worse than one ruled by the Sith. At least the Sith existed in the Force. And the light side of the Force could find a way back.

But not only did the Nephilim not exist in the Force, they existed in the Anti-Force, whatever the Void that was. While the Jedi didn't believe the Dark Ones were even Anti-Force sensitive, they were concerned that the Nephilim could potentially attract someone powerful in the Anti-Force. The Nephilim, it seemed, were pure evil merely by existing in this Anti-Force. Someone who could manipulate this evil energy would surely be even more depraved than the Dark Ones. Who knew what horrors such a twisted individual would bring? And what it would do to the Force?

**_Minotaur _**

A cruel grin came to Darth Blight's pebbly mouth as he felt the two Jedi reaching out to the Galactic Alliance pilots. This would certainly kill the two Jedi. Darth Plagueis and Darth Krayt knew this, and that was why they hadn't shown up. The battle could be lost because of this, but it would be worth it if the future Jedi Queen died. And Zeus had a powerful armada on standby to deal with the Dark Ones if it came to it.

The Barabel Sith would claim that destroying the Jedi Order hadn't been a priority, and that he'd done everything in his power to defeat the Nephilim. And it would all be completely true. The Dark Ones had, in a sense, forced the Jedi Order to destroy itself.

The Jedi and their allies would, naturally, blame Plagueis and Krayt for Allana's death. The two Sith Lords could simply claim that they believed it was the quickest way to end an ideological war that had spanned millennia. That their actions, or lack thereof, would help bring peace to the galaxy.

* * *

**The Imperial/Alliance** forces were slowly beginning to push the enemy back. Darth Blight allowed his suspicion to pour into the Force. Was this some sort of bait? The Imperial and Alliance fleets were already trapped by three mass shadows, two of which were artificial.

The Nephilim had been pushing their enemy outward, and then had let the enemy push them back in, so that it appeared as though the Dark Ones did not want to be pushed back. The Nephilim wanted to draw their enemy in.

But what if Darth Blight didn't take the bait? He hissed quietly; it was obvious that this was some sort of trap. The Barabel frowned. The Dark Ones knew that the Sith Lord wouldn't take the bait. They were counting on it. It would give these servants of the Anti-Force more time to reposition their forces. It was the same strategy Blight liked to use.

And so Darth Blight pushed his forces onward. He could feel the Alliance forces doing the same. If they were not on the same page as the Imperial forces, then nothing would work.

**_Turk Brand_**

Twin Suns Squadron, currently led by Ben and Tahiri, had joined up with Flaming Swords Squadron, led by Jaina, and a large compliment of Shadow TIEs in defending the _Turk Brand_. A number of Nephilim carrier ships were focusing their fire on the massive Star Destroyer. Razors and drop ships swarmed about, waiting for their carriers to create a gap in their prey's armor.

Ziggy Carmichael rerouted some power to his rear deflector shield as an Abominor fighter, some sort of cross between an A-wing and an E-wing, chased after him. His wingmate, Yantahar, had responded similarly to the Razor pursuing him. Why did Ziggy have to get the weird one?

He and Yantahar sped toward another pair of X-wings, piloted by Ben and Tahiri, who were being tailed by two Razors. The two pairs of X-wings fired on the other's pursuers. One of the Razors and the AE-wing detonated. The remaining Razors were quickly dispatched.

The quartet then set their sights on a Nephilim drop ship. Razors swarmed about the troop transport, acting as a second shield. Ben launched a proton torpedo as he and the other three Jedi chose one of the Razors and fired sixteen bolts of red fire. The crimson needles all more or less converged on it, reducing the flying sword to slag. Another Razor slammed right into the torpedo, shielding the drop ship from a fair amount of the blast. "Son of a blixus!" Ben muttered, naming a nasty, tentacled relative of the sarlacc.

Ben felt a sense of grave concern from Tahiri. She directed his attention to a section of the _Turk Brand's_ deflector shield, right over one of the hangar bays, which seemed to be flickering. The drop ship, somewhat resembling a matte black headless, limbless stinkbug, seemed to have taken notice and was headed in that direction. They had to take out that blasted thing.

And as though on cue two more drop ships joined in. Well, perhaps at least one of them could be eliminated. The Jedi opened fire on another of the Razors guarding the first drop ship. They fired again before another Razor could take its place. Sparks issued from the troop transport, but it continued onward. The four Jedi repeated this a few more times, and they were eventually able to destroy their target.

Unfortunately, the other two drop ships and several Razors were just passing through a gap in the deflector shield. The hangar bay seemed to light up as the drop ships and Razors began exchanging fire with some droid gun ships and a few fighters that had been stationed on board.

Ben, Tahiri, Yantahar, and Ziggy made it through the deflector shield a millisecond before it sealed itself back up. Tahiri and Ben opened fire on one of the drop ships while Yantahar and Ziggy focused on the other one, adding to the great cacophony which had already erupted inside. The Jedi were wary about firing their proton torpedoes. It could damage the ship further, making it easier for the Nephilim to place their forces inside.

The three remaining Razors came at the Jedi, forcing them to break off their attack on the drop ships and take evasive action. They redirected their fire to the flying daggers.

One of the Razors exploded into a shower of shrapnel as it flashed toward Ben's X-wing. Ben pulled his fighter up, but a jarring impact told him the X-wing had still taken hit. It fell for the split second it took Artoo to kick in the repulsors. A second or so later, the anti-grav engines began to whine. Ben checked the diagnostics screen and cringed. The repulsors could give out any second, and the engines were in the red. A miracle one could have so much bad luck and still not be dead. Which was actually incredibly good luck.

Ben brought his attention back to the battle. The drop ships had turned around to engage Tahiri, Yantahar, and Ziggy. The gunships had already been taken out, and the other two remaining X-wings were engaged with the two Razors.

Ben sighed and eased off the repulsors. The damaged underside of his X-wing began to spark as the ailing repulsors were pushed to their limit. He undid the safety restraints, and popped open the canopy. He leapt out of the cockpit, while Artoo shut off the repulsors, allowing the X-wing to slam down onto the flight deck.

Nephilim foot soldiers were pouring out of one of the drop ships as Ben's booted feet landed on the flight deck. That drop ship exploded as a burning X-wing, which had seconds earlier been engaged with a Razor, crashed into it. The other such X-wing detonated upon being rammed by Razor.

* * *

**Tahiri groaned** as the remaining Razor tore through that X-wing and blasted toward her. She took evasive action, but the Dark fighter still managed to cut through her X-wing. Tahiri put up a small shield of Force energy to block the shower of sparks which issued from the console half a second later.

The port side of the X-wing slammed onto the flight deck as the port s-foils were torn off. The Razor sheered off part of the downed X-wing's aft section, and then came at ZIggy and Yantahar. ZIggy left Yantahar for a few seconds to finish off the Razor.

When Ziggy turned back, Yantahar's flaming X-wing was skidding across the floor of the flight deck. If Ziggy didn't do something, his friend would be blown to bits. The Made Jedi sighed and reached out to the remaining proton torpedoes in his fighter and, as though they were living creatures, sent a sense of peace to them. He then angled the nose of the X-wing toward the remaining drop ship.

Time seemed to slow to less than a crawl as the fighter's nose crumpled and then smashed a hole into the side of the drop ship. Ziggy thought about the canopy blocking his escape, and the transparisteel shattered. He did a forward flip, and landed atop the drop ship as the rear of the X-wing was pushed back into the cockpit. Ziggy used the Force to anchor himself to the ailing ship as it sank down to the floor of the flight deck.

Ziggy's lightsaber _snap-hissed_ into purplish fire as he somersaulted off the fallen troop transport. A bulwark of light formed before the Made Jedi, and deflected silver white death, as he expertly twirled his weapon. One of the Dark Ones went down with a smoldering head, upon being hit by redirected friendly fire.

* * *

**Ben's lightsaber** was a verdant blur as it redirected dozens of Nephilim energy bolts. The Dark Ones easily maneuvered out of the way. Ben needed all his concentration to keep from being hit; he couldn't worry about where the deflected enemy fire went. If just one of those blasts made it past his defenses, he could be finished. He could feel several Dark Ones closing in; eventually...

From deep within the hangar, some great beast screamed needles of red and green fire. A number of Nephilim foot soldiers went down as the complementary colors of light rained down on them. Some of the other Dark Ones fell back slightly to avoid this fate.

It was just the break Ben needed. He was able to deflect some of the enemy fire back at the Dark Ones. The Jedi Knight was also forced to block some friendly fire. Though this was not very difficult, given that these energy discharges were not directed against him. He knew before reaching out through the Force to confirm it that Galactic Alliance soldiers and Execekas and Decimekas had joined the festivities.

Ben focused on a piece of debris, probably from a Razor, and it suddenly went sailing through the air to behead an unsuspecting Nephilim foot soldier. He _held_ on to it and _flung_ it at another Dark One. The piece of metal stopped in midair, mere centimeters from this Dark One's chest. It went hurtling back toward Ben, who deftly sliced it in two, causing the pieces to clatter to the floor of the flight deck.

This Nephilim was using the Force. Ben _reached_ out to it; the Force presence was very muted, as though obscured by some haze. But it was somehow familiar. Ben felt sick. Vestara! She'd been enteched, not killed. It was all Ben's fault. He'd done this to her. And now that the Dark Ones knew that it could work...

A sense of warning detonated up from Ben's subconscious, and he dove to the side just as a hail of silver white energy came his way. He quickly rolled back to his feet, and blocked a series of miniature starbursts.

* * *

**With a** mildly burned Yantahar at her side, Tahiri advanced on this Dark One that could somehow command the Force. She thought back to the battle on board the _Mon Mothma_; the Nephilim must have enteched someone... And then had transported that someone to Geonosis. With their superior hyperdrives, the Dark Ones could certainly have outpaced Bwua'tu's fleet.

The defensive shield of Force energy Tahiri had put up continued to pulse and ripple as it took on enemy fire. The greenish bubble flickered, and then went out like a spent light bulb. She could suddenly feel herself choking as the Force using Nephilim soldier seemed to glare at her with its double visored face.

Something about this soldier seemed familiar. Tahiri thought back to that last image she'd seen of Seff. That horrible image of someone she loved being taken from her. She focused on that angry sense of helplessness she'd felt and _reached_ out to this Dark soldier.

* * *

**The Upgraded** Nephilim Unit understood what this human was attempting. She hoped to corrupt...

Tahiri. His last thought as his soul is so horribly torn from his body, and darkness overtakes him.

And yet, here he stood. Ending Tahiri's life. An angry sense of helplessness burned through him; he had become the enemy. This could not be happening. He relaxed his hand. Tahiri fell to the flight deck, gasping.

His anger burned into rage. These profanities had murdered him. Had sought to make him into their own vile image. He turned on the nearest of these abominations, and unleashed his fury. The enemy's head collapsed in on itself, as though fighting a losing battle against a singularity within.


	21. Chapter 21

**Geonosis**

Luke could feel two very powerful Force presences, one dark and one light, guiding the mostly Galactic Alliance/Imperial fleet as he and the two squadrons he led dropped out of hyperspace. The Jedi Master immediately recognized the dark side life force as Darth Blight.

It took a few seconds longer to recognize the other life force as the joint presence of Allana and Thrace. Their connection was deeper than it had been during the previous battle meditation. Something, it seemed, had greatly strengthened their relationship. But as Luke examined Allana and Thrace's joint Force presence more closely, his heart became like a lead weight inside his chest. They had already begun to grow weak, and it did not seem as though the battle had been raging for very long. Cilghal had earlier expressed her concern that the two would probably die the next time they created a battle meditation.

Luke expanded his mind, as though he were blowing air into a balloon, and tried to locate Krayt or Plagueis, but they were nowhere to be found. They should have been here by now, unless... They would know that Allana and Thrace would have no choice but to create another battle meditation to help fight the Nephilim. And then they would both die. Perhaps the two Sith were just waiting for that, and then they would come to help coordinate the effort against the Dark Ones and their allies.

But what if that wasn't enough? If Krayt and Plagueis had been here from the beginning, the chances of defeating the Nephilim/Abominor fleet would have been considerably higher. Would the Sith risk that just to kill the future Queen of the Jedi? Luke began to wonder if the Sith had some sort of back up plan. Those dark side using dianogas would have to be convinced that that whatever they had up their sleeve would be up to the task of defeating the Dark Ones.

Through the Force Luke further examined the battle, and could feel a fierce battle raging within one of the _Turk Brand's_ hangar bays, between those belonging to the Force and those belonging to the Anti-Force. One of the Force presences was strangely familiar, but was so distorted by rage and hatred that Luke could not place who it was.

* * *

**The Nephilim/Abominor** coalition was a monster to behold; in the Force it was an utter abomination. While the Nephilim and the Abominor fought together, Luke could feel the Force and the Anti-Force roiling against each other. This horrid stench of chaos reached its climax in those Dark ships which had been repaired by the Abominor. These hybrid vessels were consumed by this war, an ancient contest between two opposing powers, the Force and the Anti-Force.

Vibrant needles of death surged back and forth, between the Alliance/Imperial forces and the Nephilim/Abominor fleet, creating short lived bursts of fire, as they destroyed fighters, or slamming into deflector shields, causing them to shimmer. The former charged onward toward Geonosis, while the latter sought to maneuver the ally ships back, toward the ravenous maws of the two Nephilim saucer ships. Thousands of lives were being torn from the Force as the Dark Ones and their allies began to gain ground, or space, rather.

Luke shook his head. The Force wouldn't have brought him here just to see the whole fleet destroyed. The Force simply could not allow it. Not now when those threatening the galaxy belonged to the Anti-Force. Something had to be coming; some great shift in the Force.

**_Turk Brand _**

The flight deck vibrated under the constant rain of fire and the continual screaming of energy weapons and hammering of shatterguns. This was more than just a battle between the Nephilim and those defending the galaxy from them; this was, more importantly, a battle between the Force and the Anti-Force. Ziggy could literally feel the two... entities vying for supremacy in a maelstrom of power. He tried to block it out, but it was like a needle into his soul.

Ziggy flung his deactivated lightsaber at an approaching Dark soldier. The weapon spun through the air, like the propeller of an ancient aircraft called a helicopter, toward its target. The Made Jedi then _grabbed_ onto a piece of debris, probably part of one of the Razors, to use as a shield, just as the Dark One opened fire. He used the Force to anchor himself to the floor of the flight deck, preventing the impacts of the silver white orbs of fire from knocking him onto his back.

The Nephilim warrior, seemingly in slow motion, brought one of its forearms down toward Ziggy's lightsaber. He focused on that arm, imagining that it was caught in an invisible net. While maintaining that image, the Made Jedi imagined his weapon's activation stud depressing. The lightsaber's purplish blade _snap-hissed_ to life just as the emitter nozzle turned toward the Dark One. Ziggy's opponent stumbled slightly, as the needle of light impaled its chest, but remained standing.

Ziggy used the Force to shut off the lightsaber and recall it to his hand. He summoned his ion blaster to his free hand and fired off a shot at the 'wound' in his enemy's chest. A shower of sparks erupted from the area as the artificial Force lightning made contact. Ziggy imagined molecules of oxygen being drawn to the site. A small flame came to life, but quickly died as his concentration faltered. But Ziggy's opponent was significantly weakened, and he easily managed to impale it in the face.

* * *

**Tahiri and** the newly enteched Seff fought side by side against a throng of Nephilim warriors. Servants of the light and dark sides of the Force working together, a summary of sorts of this entire war against the Dark Ones.

Tahiri was a glowing beacon of the light side, but struggled to find serenity in the chaos, the shifting currents of the Force and the Anti-Force.

Seff, on the other hand, was a dark blur as he fought, with frightening brutality, against those who had sought to enslave him. The dark side, fed by a seemingly unquenchable rage, hung around him like some noxious cloud. Its vileness reminding Tahiri of the stench of burning rubber.

But under all that anger, a mere whisper among shouts, was a profound sense of terror. Seff had been stolen from his body and imprisoned within an unliving shell. He seemed... lost, as though he were adrift in the seemingly endless void between two galaxies.

Luke Skywalker had told Tahiri about a woman he'd loved named Callista Ming. Her spirit had been trapped inside the computer core of a vessel called the _Eye of Palpatine_ for about thirty years. Being a disembodied spirit had terrified Callista at first. She hadn't been able to breath, and she'd felt as though she'd been falling for an eternity. She had also felt very cold. It had not been a painful cold, reminiscent of needles and pins, but rather a mere lack of warmth. Seff must have been going through much the same...

Tahiri instinctively put up a bubble of Force energy as several bolts of silver white oblivion screamed toward her and Seff. The shimmering energy barrier deformed slightly, as though some giant were blowing on it, as the ironically bright orbs of those belonging to the Anti-Force, something of pure darkness, made contact.

_Servants of the light and dark sides of the Force working together._ Tahiri and Seff were fighting alongside each other, but were they truly working together? Were they fighting together as one? No. Just like the Jedi and Sith, they fought against the same enemy, but they did not fight as allies.

The Nephilim continued to advance on Tahiri and Seff. The two Force users drew increasingly heavily on their respective sides of the Force. Tahiri becoming immersed in a fragile peace that could shatter any second, and Seff sinking further and further into his fury.

A bolt of enemy fire made it through Tahiri's energy shield, missing her foot by mere millimeters, to create a dark scorch mark. Tahiri knew she couldn't maintain the Force bubble much longer. And when it came down...

She realized then what she had to do. Tahiri cautiously brushed Seff's Force presence. That stench of burning rubber had grown in strength, and seemed to be carried on a hot, humid breeze. She resisted the urge to gag.

Tahiri braced herself, and swam deeper into Seff's darkness. He did not resist, but seemed to welcome her touch. She was a source of heat to the cold emptiness of his soul. Seff reached back toward Tahiri, craving more of this vibrant fire. Seff fell into light and Tahiri fell into darkness. The light tempered the dark and kept her from falling too far.

**Abominor Flagship **

The vessel from which Death Surge commanded his fleet was vaguely recognizable as a _Venator_-class Star Destroyer. For that was what she had once been. She had been horribly maimed, to the point where most would have considered her beyond saving, when the Abominor had happened upon her all those years ago. But they had saved her, and had made her beautiful. All sorts of weaponry and sensor equipment, among other things, had been made a part of her, so that she was greater than she had been before.

"My lord," interrupted his subordinate Razor Saw in his strange shuddering voice. He was a bit taller than Death Surge, and gangly by comparison. On the right side of his face was the red photoreceptor of an astromech droid, while the left side provided sanctuary to a vertical trio of orange photoreceptors characteristic of a buzz droid. "The Nephilims' enhanced unit has evidently been subverted. It is fighting closely alongside a female human Jedi. The pair is proving quite formidable."

"You shall eliminate this threat, then," responded Death Surge. It would, of course, have been far simpler just to destroy the _Turk Brand_. But both the Abominor and their Nephilim comrades wanted the vessel. The Abominor would be able to do such incredible things with a decently intact _Vanquisher_-class Star Destroyer. And there would be much to learn from the currently malfunctioning enhanced unit's brain.

"Of course, my lord," Razor Saw commed back, since there was no air to carry sound, as he ran from the bridge and to his fighter. Given that Razor Saw had elected to be the subject of his and Death Surge's 'experiment', so that his master would be preserved if things went horribly wrong, it made perfect sense that he face the Force wielding Nephilim foot soldier.

* * *

**Luke Skywalker** could feel the light side presence of Tahiri merging with that mysterious, almost recognizable dark side presence. He brushed Tahiri's Force aura, as the meld solidified, and gasped. Seff!

But Seff was different; while his life presence was there, he did not exactly seem to be alive. The Nephilim had enteched him. Tahiri must have somehow freed him from the Dark Ones' control.

Luke tried to push these thoughts from his mind as he, a Made Jedi, and a Sith Saber broke off from the double squadron to engage a peculiar cross between a B-wing and what might have once been a TIE Interceptor and probably a dozen other ships. This Abominor fighter seemed to be headed toward the _Turk Brand_. The Ugly corkscrewed and juked to avoid their fire and a pair of proton torpedoes.

There was a tremendous surge of dark side energy from the pilot of the B-TIE as his fighter was suddenly jerked around, as though by a giant, invisible hand. The hybrid fighter proceeded to vomit a rainbow barrage of light at Luke and his two wing mates. The three were forced to split up to avoid the enemy fire. The B-TIE took that time to destroy the torpedoes.

The deflector shield of Luke's StealthX began rippling furiously as the B-TIE spewed psychedelic fire his way. Luke shunted power from the weapons systems into the deflector shield, and took evasive action. The Jedi Master felt his two wing mates heading toward him. He took his StealthX into a loop just before the Made Jedi and Sith Saber took position to either side of him, and came between them 'upside down'.

Four high powered lances of energy from the B-TIE converged on the Sith Saber's fighter, turning it into a short lived red orange fireball. Luke _reached_ out toward the debris and _hurled_ it at the Abominor fighter. The enemy ship's shield sparked angrily for a brief period, but it seemed to do little damage.

The B-TIE resumed its attack on Luke and his remaining wing mate, again forcing them to split up. The hybrid fighter adjusted its course and rocketed toward the Made Jedi. Luke grunted in disgust at the sense of smugness wafting off of the Abominor pilot. If either Jedi fired any torpedoes, the B-TIE would just move out of the way. Chances were that Luke and his remaining pilot would have to dodge their own ordnance. And even if they didn't their opponent could just vape the missiles. Either way they'd be wasted. The Ugly completely ignored Luke for the few seconds it took to destroy the Made Jedi's StealthX. It then continued on its course toward the _Turk Brand_.

Luke rerouted power from his deflector shield to his weapons as he chased after that blasted B-TIE. The Ugly's deflector shield seemed to mock him as it rippled serenely, as though one were throwing stones into a pond. Luke launched off a pair of proton torpedoes, but the enemy craft somehow managed to outmaneuver them.

Within moments the B-TIE was firing on the _Turk Brand's_ deflector shield, near the hangar bay. The besieged area rippled angrily under the barrage. A gap appeared, and something, or someone, rather, leapt out of the fighter. The figure passed through the magcon field and into the hangar bay. Luke felt another surge of the dark side as the B-TIE's occupant turned it around.

Luke realized, as the hybrid fighter silently screamed toward him, that there was still an occupant aboard the B-TIE. Multiple colors of fiery light came streaming forth, exploding against his deflector shield.

_**Turk Brand**_

Sparks of green fire danced on Tahiri's fingertips as she stretched her hand forward, toward an approaching Nephilim foot soldier. A verdant bolt of energy leapt from her hand and slammed into the Dark One, creating a small dent in ts armor. A second bolt pierced the alloy as Tahiri advanced on it. She slashed with her lightsaber, tearing the hole open further, into a gash. Tahiri followed up with another bolt of green Force lightning to the wound, creating a brief, mild shower of sparks. And then it was falling down, with a smoking hole its head. _Thanks, Seff._

Tahiri suddenly felt as though she were experiencing a hot flash as something shot through the magcon field. She felt it drawing heavily on the dark side as it hurtled toward the surface of the flight deck. The floor shook a bit as what was clearly an Abominor made contact.

The Abominor's face was a mess of photoreceptors, and his mouth seemed to be made of several small saws. He was about the same height as a Neph... Seff, with three arms, the two smaller ones being on the left. One of the left hands held a long staff. Attached to the top was a long, sickle shaped blade. On the other end was a long spear tip, which began to hum and move rapidly back and forth.

Metal pellets zipped toward Tahiri and Seff as a large shattergun mounted to his right arm roared to life. Attached to this shattergun was some sort of long alloy needle. This steam punk monstrosity started drawing even more heavily on the dark side as a net of indigo energy materialized around the spike, creating a very crude approximation of a lightsaber.

The alloy pellets pelted off of Seff's forearms, which were configured into blades, as he blocked and deflected them. He and Tahiri returned fire with silver white and pale green energy, respectively. Their opponent easily batted their fire away with his staff and improvised lightsaber.

Razor Saw extended his spare left hand toward an approaching Decimator droid, throwing it up into the air. Its underside erupted into flame as a number of Dark Ones opened fire on it. His left arm seemed to almost erupt in blue fire as he brought it back toward Tahiri and Seff. Sparks of this azure fire darted from his fingers. Tahiri quickly put up a small barrier of Force energy, blocking the attack.

Razor Saw put on a Force enhanced burst of speed and charged at his two opponents. He swung his staff at Seff. The former human managed to block the attack, but stumbled slightly backward under the great force of the impact. Tahiri's lightsaber nearly fell from her hand as Razor Saw hammered his dark blue lightsaber down on her own green lightsaber. She fired off a bolt of Force lightning to try to create some distance between the two of them. But the Abominor created a small blue shield of energy with his spare hand and deflected the Force lightning down at the floor of the flight deck.

Razor Saw swung the sickle end of his weapon at Seff, forcing him to move back slightly. The blade pivoted about ninety degrees, and dug into Seff's left arm. The blade began to shake like a vibroblade, cutting deeper. The sickle blade moved back to its original position, tearing itself out of Seff's shoulder. Razor Saw twirled his weapon, bringing the spear tip up under Seff's arm. Seff manage to spin away, but not before the staff did even more damage. The arm fell limp at his side, and the blade morphed back into a forearm and hand. Razor Saw extended his spare left hand at Seff, wrenching the rogue Nephilim's arm off. The limb fell to the flight deck with a quasi-metallic thump.

Tahiri moved to charge at the Abominor, but stopped herself. Why had he torn off Seff's arm? It had already been disabled. The Abominor wanted her to attack, and so she did not. He suddenly swung his right leg toward Tahiri and she barely managed to jump out of the way. The Abominor took the opportunity to get between her and Seff.

Razor Saw and Tahiri exchanged and deflected each other's Force lightning, as the dark blue blur of his lightsaber searched for any gaps in her defenses. Razor Saw's staff seemed to take on a life of its own as it battered down the one armed, rogue Nephilim's defenses. Razor Saw leapt into the air as the Nephilim tried to kick him in the side. The Abominor stabbed down with his staff, and drove the vibrating spear tip into the Nephilim's chest. He tore it out as he returned to the floor of the flight deck.

Drawing on the Fore like some horribly fuel inefficient speeder, Tahiri ran at the hideous Force wielding Abominor. She could feel the Force burning through her as it guided the movements of her lightsaber. Sparks detonated into life as her opponent responded with his energy wrapped bayonet.

The sickle blade of Razor Saw's staff bent outward, and the Abominor drove the blade into Seff's chest. The sickle bent back, opening a huge gash in Seff's chest. He fell backward, and then rolled out of the way as Razor Saw slammed the spear tip into the floor. The Abominor delivered a savage kick to Seff's head, and then turned on Tahiri.

Tahiri launched a bolt of Force lightning at her enemy; he easily deflected it with his staff. The Abominor took hold of the staff with his extra left hand, turning the weapon into a spinning blur. He gestured minutely with his right hand, yanking Tahiri forward. As she jumped backward she felt a ghastly burning sensation in her right wrist. She heard screaming as she stumbled backward. And realized it was her own when she saw her hand on the floor behind the Abominor.

Tahiri glimpsed Seff's severed arm, allowed herself to fall backward, and let go her lightsaber. The Abominor charged at her and then leapt into the air, pointing his staff's spear tip at Tahiri's heart. She _reached_ out in the Force and _grabbed_ onto the severed arm. A large fork of greenish Force lightning exploded from the palm of her remaining hand, and slammed into the arm as it sailed through the air. The arm reformed itself into a blade, under the electric discharge, and impaled the steam punk monster in the chest.

Tahiri rolled to the side as the Abominor crashed to the flight deck. His protective Force barrier began to waver as he slowly picked himself up. Tahiri _reached_ out toward her and Seff's opponent, and imagined enormous rancor claws tearing the Abominor apart. Small gears and other pieces of machinery sprayed outward. Tahiri turned away to protect her face from the tiny pieces of shrapnel.

* * *

**Allana and** Thrace were already soaked with sweat, and turning pale, and their blood pressures were dropping dangerously low. The two Jedi Knights weren't pushing themselves significantly further than last time. But, as Cilghal had predicted, the battle meditations seemed to be having a cumulative effect on them since they were not 'built' for such things.

Tekli shook her head sadly, and handed Cilghal another pair of stim shots. While they would keep the Jedi Knights from passing out, the stim shots would also compound the damage being done by the battle meditation. Though even without the stim shots, the battle meditation was still bound to kill them.

* * *

**Admiral Nek** Bwua'tu frowned as an officer informed him of Thrace and Allana's deteriorating condition. Once that battle meditation failed...

"It is time," interrupted the calm, mechanical voice of the Other (leader of Silentium-obscure canon). "But they won't be able to maintain it for long."

Admiral Bwua'tu gave the appropriate series of commands, hoping it would be enough. But knowing, as well as everyone else, that there was no way it could be. He growled softly; he knew what would eventually come next. What absolutely had to come next. And he hated himself for it. This had all been a terrible mistake. So many thousands of people were going to die. _Because of me._

**Geonosian Space**

Floating beside the _Turk Brand_, and trading fire with a pair of Nephilim carrier ships, the Other sent out a signal to the Silentium trapped within the enemy ranks. The Abominor had done what they could to make the Silentium into their vile, malformed image.

The Other could soon feel these siblings of his coming back to life. Deflector shields of nearby Nephilim and Abominor ships shook savagely as the Silentium began to fire on them. A number of enemy ships exploded in fire and sprays of shrapnel as their defensive energy shields buckled.

The Dark Ones and their allies were forced to divert some of their fire to the Silentium. Galactic Alliance and Imperial vessels surged forward to take advantage of the situation. The Silentium continued to fire, at a furious rate, even as they were ripped apart by Nephilim/Abominor fire. Having been made part Abominor these Silentium were able to sustain a monstrous amount of damage. But within minutes these hybrid Silentium began to fall. Several of them managed to ram Nephilim or Abominor vessels before they perished.

And then, after that brief interruption, as though nothing were amiss, the coalition of evil continued its massacre of the Alliance/Imperial forces.

* * *

**Luke Skywalker's** StealthX shook almost continually as the B-TIE pounded its failing deflector shield. If he could manage to fire off a pair of proton torpedoes, perhaps he'd have a chance. But he'd certainly be vaped in the time it took him to turn around. An alarm, which was soon silenced by the on board astromech, wailed to life. Luke spared a glance at the diagnostics screen, and partly wished he hadn't. The deflector shield was at less than thirteen percent, and three of the engines were in the red.

Luke could feel the Force burning through him as it guided him away from some of his pursuer's fire. Had that Force using Abominor not gone on his errand aboard the _Turk Brand_, Luke would have been dead by now.

As he came out of a loop around... something, Luke glimpsed a number of Silentium gathered around the _Turk Brand_. The Jedi Master _reached_ out toward the _Vanquisher_-class Star Destroyer, and felt nauseous as his fears were confirmed. The Silentium were going to help the Alliance and Imperial forces destroy many of their own ships so that, hopefully, there wouldn't be anything left for the Abominor to use.

Allana would die, potentially dooming the Jedi Order. And the Galactic Alliance, with its military essentially destroyed, would be left defenseless. The Sith would only allow this battle to be lost if they knew they could defeat the Dark Ones without their help. But what if the Sith did need the help of the Jedi and the Alliance? Luke sighed and snatched up the comm.

_**Turk Brand**_

"And if the Abominor take our ships," Admiral Bwua'tu reasoned, "the Sith might just decide that they do need us."

"Yes," said Luke's voice. "If Plagueis or Krayt know what's going on here, they might just decide to intervene..."

"which would save our hides," Bwua'tu said.

"Yes. But even if they decide not to intervene, or if they can't do it in time to save us, the Sith and their friends will have more of a fight on their hands. So they won't come away from this as strong... But... I don't think the Force would have brought us all here just to be destroyed."

"So you think they'll intervene?" Bwua'tu asked.

Luke sighed. "It's the only thing I can think of. And I have the feeling that something is about to happen..." He paused a moment, as Allana and Thrace suddenly grew even weaker. "And we need to stop that blasted battle meditation."

Before the admiral could reply he felt that gentle pressure of the battle meditation leave his brain. He turned to see Thrace and Allana passed out, slumped against each other, in their chair.

**Abominor Flagship**

Death Surge was dismayed at the report, by one of the Nephilim foot soldiers, that his comrade, Razor Saw had been killed. However, the report also indicated that Razor Saw had shown great proficiency in the Force, in combat against other Force users. _So it would certainly work for me. Indeed, I shall be able to manipulate the power..._

Death Surge suddenly abandoned this train of thought, and made an unrecognizable approximation of a frown, as code from the Nephilim mainframe scrolled across the screen in front of his photoreceptors. It was the most advanced code the Abominor fleet commander had ever set his photoreceptors upon.

The Nephilim had informed the Abominor of the latest virus with which their mainframe had been infected. But the Dark Ones had made no mention of the two other viruses in their mainframe. Were they somehow not aware of them?

And perhaps more disturbing, one of these earlier viruses appeared to have been created by the same race responsible for the latest one. The other virus seemed to have been created by a separate race entirely. These Nephilim had at least two incredibly advanced enemies. And at least one of these adversaries, it seemed, still existed. And when they returned? From wherever it was they'd gone. Their wrath would be against the Nephilim and all who were foolish enough to stand with them.

And thus, the Abominor could not stand with the Nephilim. Perhaps, if they turned on the Dark Ones, the Abominor could garner the favor of one or both of these powerful celestial races. Yes, that is what the Abominor would do. They would save themselves.

**Geonosian Space**

Luke's StealthX bucked like an angry bantha as it suffered another major hit. He didn't need to check the diagnostics screen to know that his upper left s-foil had been blasted off.

He threw up his arm to shield his face as a shower of sparks issued in front of him. Luke grumbled angrily; he couldn't even turn around to ram that dang B-TIE. The Ugly would blast him to bits in the time it took...

Luke _reached_ out in the Force, and imagined the StealthX being turned around by some unseen force. He focused his mind's eye on the B-TIE as the Abominor fighter swung into view. But he stopped short of pulling the control stick back, and slamming into the Ugly. The pilot's hostility toward Luke was gone, as though he were no longer the target. The B-TIE suddenly broke off, and zipped away.

**_Turk Brand_**

The Abominors' scrapheap vessels, including the Dark ships they'd repaired, began redirecting their fire. Nearby Nephilim ships were caught off guard, as they'd been with the Silentium. A few of them exploded, as they suffered catastrophic damage. The Nephilim formations began to falter as chaos erupted within their ranks.

Nek Bwua'tu could scarcely believe what he was witnessing. But he wasted no time issuing new orders. Alliance, and Imperial vessels having received similar orders, rushed forward taking advantage of the situation. What in the Void could have possibly...

"Hello, Admiral Nek Bwua'tu," said a voice very rough, grating voice that sounded like twisting durasteel. "I am Death Surge, Fleet Commander of the Abominor. We are no longer aligned with the Dark Ones. I will explain in detail later."

"Of..." Bwua'tu trailed off. The comm had gone dead. Death Surge didn't seem to be much of a conversationalist. A good thing, really, since Bwua'tu didn't want the Abominor's horrid voice giving him a migraine...

"Sir, one of the saucers just entered hyper."

"And they'll drop out right above us," Bwua'tu grumbled.

"That's what I'd do, sir. And we're pinned by Nephilim carriers, so we can't move."

The deflector shields of those Dark ships began shaking as a pair of Abominor ships, one of which had once been a Mon Calamari cruiser, began spewing out an absurd array of color. The second Abominor vessel-Bwua'tu could even begin to guess what it had been-continued onward toward the _Turk Brand_.

"Sir?"

"I know. It's not what it looks like." The unidentifiable vessel slid into position above the _Turk Brand_ just as the Nephilim saucer exploded back into existence. The middle of the skeletal wheel opened, a bit like a monstrous, mechanized flower. A vicious, giant proboscis protruded from the center. An invisible needle of death flashed out from it, and collided with the Abominor ship.

Sparks erupted from the vessel that had just saved the _Turk Brand_ and everyone aboard. Flashes of energy burned through sections of hull plating on the top of the ship, and slammed into the Nephilim saucer ship's deflector shield. The massive Dark ship replied with its own bland complement of fire. It soon became clear, as both vessels' deflector shields deformed and rippled, that the giant flying saucer could not win this engagement. In a great flash of light the saucer suddenly vanished back into the relative safety of hyperspace.

Dark ships began maneuvering away from Geonosis in every direction imaginable, as the Nephilim realized they'd somehow been outmatched. Some of the ships immediately fled into the sanctuary of hyperspace. But many remained for a time to provide cover fire for the comrades.

Bwua'tu checked the sensors for the other Nephilim saucer, and saw that it had already fled. He let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding as the Dark ships continued to vanish. And then, save for those who could not flee, the dreaded Nephilim were gone.

**A/N: Quite long, I know. If I'd made it two chapters, then the battle for Geo. would have spanned three chapters rather than two.**


	22. Chapter 22

**Don't forget chapter 21.**

_**Turk**** Brand**_

Luke Skywalker frowned at the state of the hangar bay as he brought what remained of the StealthX through the magcon field. The flight deck was littered with the evidence of a savage battle. What had once been a pair of Nephilim drop ships, Razors, and a few X-wings. Executor and Decimator droids lay in pieces or clumps of slag.

Soldiers, Nephilim and Galactic Alliance, were also strewn about. Most of the Alliance soldiers inside the hangar bay were dead. But some of them had survived. Ben, Yantahar, and Ziggy, along with some others were helping get the wounded onto hover gurneys.

No sooner had the StealthX landed, with a gentle thump, than Luke was pounded by a wave of exhaustion. And a wave of a rather unpleasant odor. Himself, soaked with sweat. And in his throat lived the harsh dryness of Tattooine. Considering how heavily he'd had to draw on the Force, he shouldn't have been surprised.

Luke heard a knock on the side of the cockpit's canopy, and turned to see his son standing at the top of a ladder. He popped open the canopy. "Hey, dad," Ben said wearily. "You look like bantha fodder."

The Jedi Master smiled as he stood up. "And I smell like it, too," Luke said, his voice a sandpaper croak. His legs felt a tiny bit shaky as his son helped him down to the flight deck.

Luke sat down on one of the ladder's step and his son picked up a bottle of reddish liquid from the floor and handed it to his father. "Thought you'd be thirsty," Ben said. Luke grabbed it and proceeded to chug down what tasted like cherry flavored waterade. Atheletes commonly drank it to stay hydrated. "Easy there, dad," Ben said. "I'd hate to have you live through all that just to drown on me."

Luke stopped drinking for a moment, to frown at his son, before drinking what felt like another ten gallons of waterade. "So, the Abominor turned on the Nephilim, I take it," he said, after finishing with the waterade, sounding like he had a womprat trapped in his throat.

"Yeah. The Abominor discovered that, along with the virus Andromeda uploaded, the Dark Ones had two other viruses."

"Two?" Luke asked, astonished.

Ben nodded. "One of the first two must have been what made the Nephilim go crazy in the first place. Maybe both of them. And one of those viruses appears to have been created by the same race as the one Andromeda uploaded."

Luke frowned. "So the Celestials might have made the Nephilim go crazy, and then decided to send Andromeda to upload that latest virus."

"That's what it looks like. Maybe they were created by different... factions?" Ben suggested.

"Maybe," Luke wasn't entirely convinced. "I have a feeling we might be finding out before too long."

Ben rolled his eyes. "I hate when you talk like that."

"I know, and that's why I do it," Luke said, with an annoying smile. "What about... Allana and Thrace?" he asked, in a more serious tone.

"They're fine," Ben said. He was silent a moment. "They're in a healing trance."

"Their bond seemed a lot stronger," Luke commented.

Ben nodded. "They decided to get married. I mean they already did. I'm sure they'll want to do the whole thing over again, now that you're here."

"I look forward to it." Luke looked around a bit, watching Yantahar and Ziggy helping with the wounded. He glanced over at Tahiri, sitting on a crate some distance away.

"Hi, Luke," Tahiri said, as Luke walked over to the crate she sat on.

"Hi," Luke returned. A frown took up residence on his face as he noticed that her right hand was missing.

"Occupational hazard," Tahiri explained. "Seff and I had an altercation with a Force wielding Abominor."

"So did I," Luke said. "I saw him 'board' the _Turk Brand_. How is Seff doing?"

"Um, well," Tahiri said. "He's in there, but he's... very confused."

Luke couldn't help but be reminded of Nichos Marr. Nichos had been a Jedi trainee, years ago. He fell victim to a disorder called Quannot's disease, which began to destroy his nervous system. In an attempt to save him, his fiance, Cray Mingla tried to transfer his consciousness to a droid body, using Ssi-Ruuvi entechment technology. The effort had appeared successful at first. But it turned out that Nichos had in fact perished, with the droid simply being programmed with a copy of his memories and personality.

Could the same thing have happened to Seff? No. He could still use the Force. And the anger Luke had felt from the younger man could never have come from a droid. And of course, in the right hands, entechment truly did transfer one's life force.

"Where's Seff right now?" Luke asked.

Tahiri pointed deeper into the ship. "Seff's body was damaged pretty badly, so he's helping some people figure out how to attach his head to another body. You must have sensed our Force meld."

Luke nodded, not quite sure what to make of what he'd felt. He'd been unable to spare much attention with that B-TIE trying to vape him.

"It wasn't like when I was... a Sith. I still used the dark side, but I stayed in the light. It felt... balanced."

Luke looked thoughtful a moment. "There's a lot we don't know about the Force."

* * *

**Some distance **from the giant space born dagger of the _Turk Brand_ floated the gleaming, silver blue ovoid form of Vuffi Raa. His hull began to break open along various seems. His armor plating began spreading apart, revealing fresh, glowing alloy underneath. After a moment or so, it cooled and hardened.

Vuffi Raa then headed off to a debris field to feed off of some space junk. A port opened on the Silentium's ventral surface; tractor beams pulled in the debris like invisible tentacles. Vuffi Raa extracted important elements and minerals and such and fed the nutrients into his body, strengthening hull armor and expanding existing circuitry. The waste came out that same port as tiny specks of space dust.

Most of the remaining Silentium, scattered around Geonosis, were doing the same. Cleaning up space debris, while providing themselves with sustenance.

* * *

**Tahiri looked** up from the stump where her right hand had once been, as Tekli applied a numbing agent to the area. Luke smiled as he took in the young woman's bare feet. Except for a brief period in her life, where she'd been reconciling her Yuuzhan Vong personality of Riina, she had never liked wearing shoes.

"I know technology isn't evil, but..."

"You're part Yuuzhan Vong," Luke finished. "Perhaps, you'd like a Shaper's hand, instead," he half joked.

"Void, no. That would hurt more than having my hand cut off in the first place. I do like that they have eight fingers, though."

Tahiri and Luke watched in silent fascination as Cilghal moved her new hand toward her wrist. As though it were a living organism, the mechanical hand reached out millions of nearly microscopic, artificial nerve fibers. Tahiri felt an extremely mild shock as the artificial neurons connected themselves to hers. Tekli then performed a few tests on the new hand to ensure that it functioned properly.

"Welcome to the club," Luke said, patting Tahiri's shoulder.

**Nam Chorios**

"As expected the Abominor feared incurring the wrath of the Nephilims' enemies. And thus turned on the Dark Ones." Zeus proudly told Phaeton. "Otherwise, we'd have had to call in the fleet."

Phaeton smiled. "Brilliant thinking on your part; Lord Kronos will be proud. We are on track to proceed with the next phase, then?"

"Yes," Zeus said. Once the galaxy was on their side, Zeus and his people would be able to destroy their ancient foe. _They murdered our people, and they will pay with their lives._

"Is that all, Lord Zeus?" Phaeton asked.

"Yes," Zeus lied. Now was not the time to mention his involvement with the Sith. That could come later. One could not rush such delicate matters.

"I hope to see you soon, then." Phaeton's face seemed to dissolve as the connection between two quantum crystals was severed. The large white gem on Zeus' side dimmed as its light died away.

Burning within a fire of excitement, Zeus walked through the many corridors and hallways of the ancient subterranean command center, reactivating ancient computers that had rested dormant for millennia. War was coming, and it would bring long awaited justice.

The drama continues in: STAR WARS: FATE OF THE JEDI: DECEPTION-The Celestials return, but have they come to save or destroy the galaxy?


End file.
